


Dappled With Scars, Rooted in the City

by nekonicko



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, F/F, Non-Graphic Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, background lucio/genji, background mccree/hanzo, past pharah/symmetra
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2018-08-11 18:53:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7903822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekonicko/pseuds/nekonicko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fareeha Amari is a normal college student in almost every way. Except for the, you know, demon hunter thing. All she wants to do is take classes, fight evil, and find her missing mother -- but when a mysterious girl named Angela careens into her life and asks her for help killing a demon more powerful than she has ever faced before, how can she possibly resist? </p><p>(Otherwise known as, the lesbian demon hunter college AU we all deserve.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_She dreamt she was flying. Soaring, on wings made of metal and glass. Her whole body seemed to hum with energy, and there was a huge gun in her hands. More of a rocket launcher, really. The air rushed past her, through her, filling her with unknowable light and joy. This was what she was born to do. This was her true calling – to be a raptor of justice above war-torn battlefields, a protector of the innocent. Whatever lives she lived, whatever people she met, loved, killed – she knew she had this._

_The tattoo under her right eye prickled with sudden, alarming intensity, and she felt her wings stutter. The Eye of Horus never lied; there was danger nearby. Someone was in trouble. She had to –_

“Fareeha. _Fareeha._ God, you never sleep this heavily when I make food in the middle of the night...” The dream was over. Fareeha Amari opened her eyes, still feeling the phantom discomfort that was her tattoo’s warning for danger. She kept still, face pressed to the cool, smooth surface of her anthropology textbook, trying to sense the source of the danger without alerting anyone of her knowledge.

Completely unaware of Fareeha’s tension, Lena delivered a sharp _whap_ to the back of her head.

Her focus shattered and the pain in her tattoo disappeared instantly. She jerked her head up in surprise, skull connecting solidly with Lena’s chin from where her friend had been leaning over her in concern. A dull _crack_ and they were both curled up and groaning.

Lena was the first to recover. “Now what’d you do that for?” she exclaimed indignantly, her accent thickening with her upset. Fareeha’s eyes finally stopped smarting and focused on her friend and roommate, clutching her messenger bag in one hand and her chin in the other.

“I’m sorry, that was an accident,” she finally said, still reeling from the sudden pain to the crown of her head, and the abrupt end to the Eye’s warning. “You startled me awake, that’s all. Sorry.” She looked keenly around her, at the other students who had briefly looked at them but were now leaving the classroom in a messy pack. Fareeha quickly extricated herself from the cramped confines of her desk, and began to hastily gather her books and papers into her  backpack.

Lena watched her with her hands on her narrow hips, frowning at Fareeha’s haste, her darting glances at their classmates. Thankfully, she was wise enough not to say anything around so many people, even if no one would hear them over the clamor of two hundred college students trying to leave a lecture hall on a Friday afternoon. Instead, she only said, “You shouldn’t fall asleep in class so close to midterms – you can sleep plenty at home!”

“I can sleep when I’m dead,” Fareeha declared, and downed the rest of the coffee in her travel thermos to punctuate the statement. “Anyway, let’s go to the library, okay?” At her coded request, Lena’s eyes sharpened, and Fareeha felt a subtle change in the air as Lena, too, began to cast her (vastly superior) senses out for danger. They walked at the back of the pack in silence, both of them sweeping their gazes slowly through the crowd, but Fareeha could sense nothing. No funny smells, no flickering at the edge of her vision, no phantom whispering as someone passed by.

They left the building and took quick strides toward the parking lots on the edge of campus. There was no library in that area, but Lena had understood Fareeha’s signal – that her Eye had warned her, and that they needed to speak in private.

Fareeha waited until the doors of Lena’s beat-up Honda Civic were shut before she began to speak. “Just as I was waking up, my Eye was triggered. It was a pretty strong reaction, too. I was laying still and trying to find the source, but you whacked me and the warning totally vanished.”

“I’m sorry about that, by the way –“ Lena automatically apologized, but Fareeha waved it off.

“Even if you had hit me with a two-by-four, the signal wouldn’t have disappeared like that,” she insisted. She bit her lip in worry as Lena began to pull out of the parking stall. “It’s never done that before.”

Lena kept her eyes trained on the rearview mirror, but her hands were tense on the steering wheel. “I checked everything within a two hundred foot radius with magic – nothing. Whatever it was, it disappeared quick. Are you sure you weren’t just dreaming?”

Fareeha hesitated. “I was having a pretty vivid dream,” she said slowly. “I mean, there’s no way your magic wouldn’t have picked it up if it was really there. I can ask Raptora about it, see if the Eye has had a history of false alarms.” Cautiously, she allowed herself to relax against the car seat.

“Just keep an eye on it... If you know what I mean,” Lena replied, and snickered when Fareeha groaned in mock agony at the pun.

Her worries temporarily assuaged, Fareeha turned the topic of conversation to other things, mostly to do with the class period she slept through. They reached the tiny house they shared before long, and Lena pulled into the driveway just long enough for Fareeha to get out. Then she was gone again, promising to be done with track practice in time for dinner. Fareeha watched the Civic disappear around the corner, still contemplating the afternoon’s events. She shook herself and resolved to put it out of her mind, then went into her house.

The house that she and Lena shared was small, with two bedrooms, a single, dingy bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen. In almost all respects, a totally normal house inhabited by two college students. The only real differences were the shelves of ancient scrolls and moth-eaten books; the cabinet full of dried herbs, cat’s tongues, and old magical amulets; the dead mice in the freezer; the silver knife and matching silver revolver on the kitchen table; and the posters, drawings, and etchings of dozens of protective sigils, enchantments, and wards on the walls.

Really – other than that stuff, they were normal twentysomethings in every way.

 Fareeha toed off her shoes in the entryway, and dropped her backpack in its customary spot by the dining room table before moving into her bedroom, already removing her clothes. As she threw her shirt onto the pile of dirty laundry that permanently lived in the corner of her room, Raptora untucked their proud head from behind their wing, stretching on their perch by her window. They yawned cartoonishly, then clacked their beak at Fareeha in a fond greeting. _I trust you had a good day, and only slept in a couple of your classes,_ they said, deep voice coming not from their beak but reverberating around in Fareeha’s head like a song in a cathedral.

“My day was fine,” Fareeha replied absently, inspecting Raptora with an intensity that she hoped they wouldn’t notice.

Raptora took the form of a huge, dark falcon, with hooked black claws thicker than a human hand, and a golden beak. Their unnaturally bright blue eyes shone with intelligence. They had been part of Fareeha’s family since she was a little girl. She knew Raptora better almost than she knew herself.

The giant falcon did not seem even remotely alarmed or bothered by anything, and they were Fareeha’s best magical disturbance detector. Inwardly, she allowed herself a rush of relief. It must have been a false alarm, after all. “And for your information,” she continued, “I only slept in one class.”

Raptora clucked in disapproval, but said nothing. Fareeha’s academics were becoming a sore subject between the two of them, but she kept her grades up, and that was what mattered to her. _Anyway,_ Raptora said delicately, _nothing much happened today. No disturbances or calls to the help-line. You got your delivery from Hanzo, too._

Glad to change the subject, Fareeha hummed in acknowledgement as she shucked off her jeans and pulled on black leggings, soft socks, and her new spiked, silver-tipped knee- and shin-guards. She laced on her leather combat boots beneath, checking that her dagger was still in its hidden sheath. On top she wore a plain black T-shirt, her reinforced bronze breastplate, and her customary leather jacket. She thought she looked rather dashing in her work outfit, but Lena never hesitated to inform her that she looked more like the star of a bad 50s action movie. She checked her reflection in the mirror in her closet, nothing that the Eye of Horus looked as dark and unassuming as ever. She touched and rubbed the golden beads that framed her face and tamed her coarse, black hair. She allowed their smooth slide between her fingers to calm any lingering worries, then shut her closet door.

At her gesture, Raptora flew onto her arm, clasping the worn leather gently between their talons. Fareeha bore them into the living room. “Nothing much happened on my end either,” she said. “Just a normal day of classes. I studied in the library for the first time since we took down that boggart on the fourth floor.. You remember? Thank god they removed that old wardrobe.” Now convinced of her mistake and not even sure if she should tell Raptora at all, Fareeha pressed on. “But... something weird happened during my last class.”

With a flutter of their wings, Raptora left Fareeha’s arm and settled on their perch at the dining room table – their unofficial base of operations. _Oh? What happened?_

“The Eye of Horus prickled,” Fareeha told them, watching their inhuman eyes for any reaction. “A warning of danger, like usual, but stronger than normal. It woke me up, actually. But as soon as I was about to do something about it, the feeling disappeared. It never came back, and Lena did a sweep but found nothing out of the ordinary.” Fareeha tapped the tattoo under her eye thoughtfully. “I thought that it must have been a false alarm.”

        Raptora tilted their head, gazing at Fareeha with blazing blue eyes. When they spoke, Fareeha knew that she was in for a lecture. She couldn’t help sighing loudly and throwing herself into a chair as they scolded her. _You know that magical sigils and objects don’t behave like defective human machinery, Fareeha._   _The Eye of Horus doesn’t_ do _false alarms. The enchantment is too powerful to be lied to, tricked, or otherwise tampered with. It is a protection symbol that, once activated, becomes inextricably linked to your life force and the mysterious twisting paths of Fate. It is very potent magic, and much more sensitive and foolproof than any human technology can achieve._

“I know,” Fareeha replied. She could feel the frustration building inside her, and part of her wanted to loudly question how a phantom bad feeling during a dream held so much significance. Instead, she fought to keep her tone civil and asked, “Do you know what could have caused this?”

Raptora sighed and ruffled their feathers, looking away. _Unfortunately, the origins and true mechanisms of the Eye of Horus are a mystery to the spirits. It was kept a secret from every being save the Amari family. Your mother would have known._

Somehow knowing that they would say that, Fareeha stood up in a huff. "Just another mystery my mother left behind. Of course!” she growled. “Is there anything that _I_ can do about it?”

 _Not really,_ Raptora replied in a pained voice. Fareeha’s mother was a bad topic for the both of them. _My instinct would be to be alert in case the same thing happens again. Pay attention to your dreams. If we went hunting tonight, maybe I could try to detect if anything has changed in Hudson City._

Happy to have a concrete goal, Fareeha immediately went to the small coat closet by the front door. “I was just planning on visiting the Undercity tonight, but we also haven’t patrolled in awhile. Let’s just go.” Yanking open the hidden door in the closet with more force than strictly necessary, she began to select weapons from the armory recessed inside. She fastened her favorite handgun to a thigh holster, shoved a matchbox full of silver and copper bullets into her jacket pocket, and lifted her hair to strap her short sword  across her back. Vials of holy water, darts infused with heather oil, and a flashlight went into her over-the-shoulder bag. She closed the hidden door with a snap and watched as the concealment rune did its work to hide the seam in the wall. Then, she grabbed her padded black coat from  its coat hanger and shrugged it on, tucking the matching black helmet under her arm.

Raptora landed on her shoulder with a whisper of feathers, and they left out the back door. Fareeha pulled out her phone and shot Lena a text, letting her know that she would be home late, then strode out into the un-watered back yard. The dead grass crunched under her boots.

Fareeha opened the worn wooden door of the shed behind their house, and kicked the tarp away, revealing her mother’s black motorcycle. The thing was ancient, with the loudest engine Fareeha had ever heard, and seats worn totally smooth with age. Fareeha spent more time fixing the damn thing up than actually riding it, but she loved it all the same.

Donning the helmet, she swung a leg over the bike and inserted the small key into the ignition. Raptora took off from her shoulder as the bike began to move, their voice clear in her mind: _Meet me downtown, by our usual spot. I will have a full report for you by then._ Nodding in acknowledgement, Fareeha watched the black falcon disappear into the darkening sky. When Raptora was gone, she revved the engine and peeled into the road, thundering her way downtown.

\----

By the time she pulled into the parking lot behind _The Wolf Bar_ downtown, night had set in fully and the Hudson City streets were positively packed with people out celebrating the start of the weekend. Fareeha leaned her bike against the wall and dug in her jacket pocket for an old dog treat, tossing it to the young man slouching by the back entrance to the bar. The werewolf bouncer grinned at her toothily. Nodding in satisfaction, Fareeha set her helmet and motorcycle jacket against the wall, and settled against it to wait.

She didn’t have to wait long. Right on time, she heard Raptora’s heavy form land on the chain-link fence at the back of the parking lot, and approached them for their report. They had picked up and killed a mouse along the way, and Fareeha politely averted her eyes as they began to tear into the carcass with their beak, their voice still calm and measured in her head. _No more activity than usual in most parts of town. A couple of new hauntings, but the ghosts are too new and agile to exorcise right now. There’s a vampire wreaking havoc on the East Side, but I heard whispers that the Vampire Council is going to take care of it._

Fareeha snorted. “As if the Vampire Council will be able to do anything,” she said derisively. “I can borrow a stake from the wolves right now –“

 _The vampire is not important right now,_ Raptora interrupted, their voice grave. _I was almost finished with my patrol when I sensed demonic activity._ Fareeha looked up at once, all her senses suddenly alert and taut with tension.

“Demonic activity?” she repeated. Her fingers itched to grab the hilt of her sword, but she clenched them into a fist to calm herself. “There hasn’t been a demon in Hudson City since...”

 _Since Ana disappeared, yes,_ Raptora finished wearily. _It’s not very far from here. I don’t think it’s doing anything right now, just lying in wait, but I would encourage you to approach it with caution. There is no way this is just a simple coincidence._

“I killed every demon in Hudson City five years ago,” Fareeha replied, her voice tight. “I know what I’m doing.” She thought that Raptora would scold her for being so bold, but their eyes only glittered with pride and anticipation.

_That’s what I want to hear. If you are ready, then follow me._

On silent feet, Fareeha followed Raptora’s shadow against the sky, jogging with long, easy strides. She tried to use the back alleys and hop fences whenever possible, to stay hidden from the general public. She didn’t want to deal with all the questions that would ensue from seeing a young dark-skinned woman running with a gun strapped to her thigh. As they neared the demon’s location, the Eye of Horus began to prickle again, the discomfort becoming more prominent as they got closer. Fareeha felt such a rush of potent relief at her tattoo’s return to normal function that she almost stumbled.

At Raptora’s direction, Fareeha finally came to a stop in a dark alley much like the rest. Trash clung permanently to the corners where brick building met pavement. Fareeha’s boot crunched on a pile of spent cigarettes, startling a group of rats out of their hiding place. She could feel Raptora’s beady gaze following the rodents as they skittered into the shadows. It stank of mildew, old beer, and piss. Fareeha itched to flick on her flashlight, but that would only scare the demon away. Demons were intelligent, manipulative, and malicious. Like rats – where there was one demon, there were sure to be more. She had to immobilize it with a sigil, then try to get as much information out of it as possible before she killed it.

Raptora’s claws shifted uneasily on her shoulder. Fareeha felt a thread of fear shoot through her, trembling like a taut bowstring. She strained her ears for any sound, but only heard the distant noise of cars on the road. A beat of tense silence, then the Eye suddenly burned, more intensely than with any other demon Fareeha had ever killed. She gasped in pain and surprise. Unable to make sense of the new sensation, Fareeha almost missed the scream.

High and panicked, like a cornered animal, the voice cut through Fareeha’s confusion like a knife. She bolted forward, deeper into the alley, searching for the source of the sound. Her sword was already in her hand, held loosely at combat readiness. The edge of the blade, gilded with a thin layer of the finest quality gold, could slice through a demon’s physical form effortlessly. The demon’s spiritual form would be harder to destroy, but Fareeha could recite the incantation in her sleep. It echoed in her mind as she turned a corner in the alleyway, but she stopped dead, shocked into incomprehension.

A young woman scrabbled on the dirty ground, choking on the morphing, grey, grotesque hand that held her pinned to the ground. The creature – demon – was unlike anything Fareeha had ever seen. It took a humanoid shape, highly unusual for demons, with great clawed hands and huge shoulders. Its face was a white mask, blank but dripping with ferocity. Reddish smoke seemed to come off it in waves, pooling at its feet like a ghastly mist. Its skin was constantly moving, like shapes were fighting for dominance beneath the thin surface. The demon was whispering something unintelligible into the young woman’s ear as she sobbed in terror, her face slowly turning purple. She was punching it, kicking it, but it didn’t even notice the weak blows.

Fareeha stood frozen for a long, stretching moment full of horror. She couldn’t process the creature that was killing this woman. She had never met anything this terrifyingly dangerous, and she felt her muscles freeze and deaden in fear.

Only Raptora’s falcon shriek in her ear startled her out of her stupor. _Kill it!_ They screamed. _It’s going to kill her!_ With a beat of their great wings they were in the air, bravely trying to assault the creature with their claws. They passed clean through the thing like smoke, but it stopped and growled, gazing up at the falcon in confusion. Fareeha finally moved, her sword fluid in her hands again, a raw-throated yell bursting out of her.

She lunged, and slashed the demon diagonally across the back. She felt a sense of savage satisfaction as the sword connected with phantom flesh, the gold burning great sores into the demon’s back. It shrieked in fury and let go of the woman, who went immediately limp. As it turned its back on the woman to attack Fareeha, she thrust out her hand, fingers curled into the sigil she needed. She yelled the incantation, and felt her Eye burn with power.

“ _In the name of Horus, I strike you. In the name of Horus, I immobilize you. In the name of Horus, you will obey!”_

The Arabic rolled fluidly off her tongue, and  a complex circular design, bright blue and gold, flashed into being on the ground below the demon’s feet. The sigil froze the demon in place immediately, and it thrashed in confusion, uttering hoarse screams. Fareeha felt only the cerulean blaze of power in her Eye, focused around the sigil of her fingers. “ _Where did you come from? What is your name?”_ she demanded, still in Arabic for the spell would break if she spoke any other language.

The blank white mask turned toward her, broken by narrow diamonds for black, soulless eyes. Red smoke leaked from a mouth that was only a jagged hole in the bone-white face. The thing looked at her for a moment, then laughed, its voice deep and distinctly mocking.

“I am Reaper,” the demon said, each word spoken with many voices layered on top of one another. A dull hissing whispering sounded in Fareeha’s ear, and the pain in her Eye suddenly spiked until it was like a white-hot brand against her cheek. She cried out, and in her momentary lapse in concentration the sigil flickered and died away. The demon laughed in many voices, and shattered the last of the blue magic like candyfloss. Fareeha stumbled and fell back in pain.

Above the dull thudding of her heart, she heard Raptora’s shriek. She sank to her knees, overcome by the agony in her Eye, as Reaper advanced slowly upon her, laughing all the time. As the sharp black claws closed around her throat, Fareeha felt a tear roll down her cheek, and looked one last time into the remorseless white face.

“ _I’m sorry, Ami,”_ she whispered, closing her eyes.

Air rushed in her ears, and with a dull thud she dropped to the ground, her ankle twisting painfully beneath her. Astonished that she was still alive, Fareeha took a moment to look up at the demon standing, trembling, above her. The mask was gone, and a human face, torn with horror and grief, stared down at her. The smoke, the shifting flesh – all gone. Only a tall, dark-skinned man with close-cropped black hair and an untidy beard gazed down at her. Scars crisscrossed his cheek and bisected his nose, and his eyes were filmy with tears. “I – I’m sorry,” he whispered, his voice nothing like that of the demon, and disappeared into a shifting cloud of shadows.

In the next moment, the demon was gone.

The pain in her Eye faded slowly away, until she couldn’t feel it at all. Fareeha coughed a few times, already feeling bruises on her neck, and struggled to stand up. Raptora landed back on her shoulder, clicking their beak in concern. She sheathed her sword behind her back, and tested her weight on her ankle. The joint throbbed, but held, and she limped over to the prone form of the woman that Reaper had attacked. Every limb felt like lead, and she could already feel a sharp headache forming behind her right eye.

Just as she bent down to take the woman’s pulse, her eyelashes fluttered. She squinted up at Fareeha with blazingly blue eyes, and Fareeha noticed for the first time that the woman was almost totally naked, draped in loose, snow-white robes. “Where did he go? That... that thing?” she asked, pupils blown wide in panic. Her accent was subtle and hard to place, but her face was distinctly European, narrow and rosy, framed by untidy golden hair. Fareeha felt her mouth go dry, and blamed it on her exhaustion.

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I think we’re safe, for now. My name is Fareeha.” Bright blue eyes flickered to hers, wide and beguiling with trust. Her heart stuttered between her ribs.

“Fareeha. My name is Angela. Thank you.” 


	2. Chapter 2

A small, warm hand grasped Fareeha’s sweaty fingers, and she found herself helping Angela stand. The loose, flowing white robes resolved themselves into a dress that was obviously too big for her. Her thin shoulders were bare, and her golden hair just barely touched her collarbones. Her too-bright eyes, the slim fingers curled around Fareeha’s, and the gentle glow of her skin in the dirty alleyway were intoxicating. Fareeha felt her face heating up, and her heartbeat thumped in her ears in a way that had nothing to do with the danger she was just in. Confused and frightened, she loosened her hand from Angela’s grip as gently as she could manage. The woman regarded her with open concern, as if _she_ was the one that needed protection, and Fareeha suddenly felt exhaustion crash over her like a wave. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in her bed and forget about the terrifyingly powerful demon, the frighteningly alluring girl, and all the homework she had to do that weekend.

Lightheaded, she managed, “Where do you live? I can take you home, and try to answer whatever questions you have.” She tried to avoid actually speaking to the people she helped as much as possible, for they either demanded answers or gibbered in denial after they had faced the unexplainable.   

Angela’s eyes skittered away from hers, and she studied the ground as if it suddenly held some interest for her. A small part of Fareeha’s brain noted that her eyelashes were not blond like her hair, but black in the dusky yellow light of a distant street lamp. Before Angela could answer her question, Raptora’s wings crashed by her ear and they squawked in warning. Fareeha reached up to let them nuzzle her fingers. “What’s wrong?”

Raptora did not immediately respond. Their eyes were trained keenly on Angela, who gazed back as if she knew exactly who they were. The lack of surprise, confusion, or fear in her expression sent a thrill of disbelief through Fareeha. _Fareeha,_ they said, interrupting her thoughts. Their voice was as clear as ever in her mind. _This woman is not human._

Angela only had the time to gasp and back away before Fareeha’s sword was in her hands once more. Hearing only rushing in her ears and faint with the thought of having to use the Eye again, Fareeha flipped through her mental database of spells. Most magical creatures could not easily disguise themselves as human beings, unless they were shapechangers like werewolves or changelings, but a demon possessing a human could pass as a regular person with ease. If she only knew –

“I’m sorry,” Angela cried out, hands in the air and voice pleading. “I didn’t immediately tell you. No, I’m not human. Or, I used to be not human.”

Fareeha wanted to stand down and listen, but she had had enough of mysteries for one day. Her fingers tightened on the hilt of her sword, and her jaw creaked with the effort it took to refrain from yelling. “I just risked my life to save yours,” she said, her voice low and dangerous. “If that means anything to you, I need to know what you are _now._ ”

“I – I can’t tell you here. Not now. We are still in danger, and _he_ might come back any minute,” Angela pleaded. “Before I can tell you anything, we need to go somewhere safe.” She gathered the billowing folds of the bizarre white dress closer to her body, shivering in misery but with her hands held in front of her, as if to placate a wild animal. Fareeha didn’t move, trying to see the trick or ploy in her words.

 _If she was going to kill you, she would have done so by now._ Raptora’s calm murmur cleared her jumbled thoughts, and all the fight left her in a moment. The headache behind her eye was swiftly turning into a migraine, and every bruise on her body was throbbing in tandem. “Alright,” she said, sheathing her sword reluctantly. “We can go back to my house. But when we get there, I want answers.” Angela nodded timidly, her hands falling to her sides. Fareeha hesitated, then shrugged off her jacket and handed it to her. “Wear this. It’ll be cold on the highway,” she said, steadfastly not looking at her face.

“Thank you,” Angela said again. Fareeha could only nod, and turned to lead her away before she embarrassed herself any further. With a whisper of white fabric and the tap of bare feet on the dirty pavement, Angela followed. 

\----

The walk back to _The Wolf Bar_ was short and awkward. Fareeha plodded along, cursing her throbbing ankle and conversing quietly with Raptora. They couldn’t immediately sense what Angela was, so spirit and demon were ruled out. The only thing Fareeha could conclude was that she was some kind of shapechanger, able to pass as human even to Raptora’s heightened senses. Angela only walked slowly by her side, staring at everything around her as if she was seeing it all for the first time.

Loud music, laughter, and voices floated from the street as they reached the parking lot behind the bar. Seeing human beings again, unconcerned about the dark creatures and powers haunting the city, felt like entering a different world.

The werewolf bouncer was still there, his teeth glinting in the shadow. Angela edged behind her back. Fareeha quietly thanked him, and he winked at her before disappearing back into the bar. Loud country music blasted from the crack in the door for a moment, then faded away. Fareeha shrugged into her motorcycle jacket, and put on her helmet. Raptora hesitated on her shoulder, but she waved their concerns away. “I’ll be fine on my own,” she told them. “If I was in danger, the Eye would have told me by now. I’ll see you at home.”

With a nod, they took off from her shoulder, and she was alone with Angela. Suddenly remembering something, Fareeha held up a hand for Angela to wait and fished in her bag for her phone. Hitting the speed dial, she waited impatiently for Lena to pick up.

“Hello? Fareeha, what’s going on –“

“I’m super sorry about this,” Fareeha explained hurriedly. “I know we were supposed to have dinner and watch movies for once –“

Lena’s tinny voice was indignant. “I know! For once, no schoolwork, no demons, no bloody dragons –“

“But there’s been a situation.” Fareeha let a bit of her frustration and worry leak into her voice. It wasn’t hard. “I’m going to bring someone over to the house, and I need your help trying to figure out all this mess. I’m really sorry, but innocent people could be getting hurt right now unless we know more.”

A pause, then a long sigh from the other end. “I understand,” Lena said. “I’ll prep for someone staying the night. Thanks for the warning.”

“Thanks, Lena. You’re the best roommate ever.” Fareeha smiled into her phone.

“Yeah, yeah – see you soon.” The line cut off, and Fareeha locked her phone, her duty as a good roommate satisfied. She turned to Angela, who had listened to the whole exchange with an expression of bemusement. “I don’t have an extra helmet for you,” Fareeha said apologetically, wondering why she was even talking to her. Angela nodded in understanding, hands buried deep in her jacket pockets. Fareeha straddled the bike and scooted forward slightly, looking resolutely ahead. “Go on,” she urged when Angela hesitated. Finally Fareeha felt slim hands tentatively touching her hips, and the bike dipped slightly under Angela’s weight.

Fareeha switched on the engine, and the bike jumped forward. Angela gasped loudly behind her, and suddenly her arms were around her. Trying not to flinch away from her touch and feeling her headache only growing worse with her embarrassment, Fareeha said nothing. She gently pulled them out into the road and headed in the direction of home.

Thankfully they encountered no Friday night traffic. Angela held onto her the whole time, saying nothing. Fareeha imagined she could feel her billowing blond hair tickling her helmeted cheek.  The ride passed in a blur of Fareeha trying not to think about Angela’s bare thighs pressed against the bike seat, or her cheek rubbing against her back. Some part of her wildly theorized that Angela was some desire spirit, with a glamour that elevated her to otherworldly beauty. Another part of her knew that no such creature existed.

Before she could scold herself any further for her impure thoughts, the bike was grumbling into her driveway. She spotted Raptora’s silhouette on the roof of the shed, and waved at them. At her gesture, Angela disembarked and stood patiently as she wheeled the bike back into the shed, threw the tarp over it, and locked the doors. Fareeha only had the time to take off her helmet and massage her aching head before Lena burst out the backdoor, her mage staff in her hand. All three of them stood frozen, not sure what to do next. In the next moment, Lena’s eyes locked on to Angela and she pointed the bladed end of her staff at her face, her long legs splayed in a combat stance. Alarmed, Fareeha made to stand between them, but a murmured word from Raptora stopped her.

“Fareeha,” Lena said, voice breathless with barely restrained magic. Her eyes were beginning to spark with power, glowing blue from the inside out. “What did you bring to our house?”

Angela threw her hands up again, eyes glued on the tip of the staff blade inches from her throat. “Please, let me explain! I mean you no harm, and I need your help vanquishing something far more dangerous. Please...”

Fareeha didn’t move, because Lena could be quite volatile when she released her magic. Instead, she spoke in as calm a tone as she could manage. “Lena, I found her being attacked by a powerful demon, one of the most powerful I’ve ever seen. She has information on it, and she wants to talk. Let’s at least hear her out.” Lena’s glowing eyes flicked to her own, and she tried to appear more confident than she felt. Slowly and with visible reluctance, Lena lowered her staff. It didn’t disappear into its pocket dimension like usual, but Fareeha was glad for her caution. Her roommate did not seem obviously affected by Angela’s beauty, and she needed someone with a purely objective view. Lena stood aside and held the door open to let Angela inside, her eyes following Angela the entire time. As soon as Raptora swooped inside ( _To watch her,_ they said), Lena shut the door firmly behind her. They were alone in the backyard.

“Lena, I’m sorry about this,” Fareeha said immediately, desperate to make amends for disrupting her friend’s night. Lena waved her off easily, but didn’t smile. After a beat, Fareeha asked, “So what did you see? Raptora could only sense that she wasn’t human.”

Lena frowned, and nodded. “I saw pretty much the same thing. It was really weird  -- she has immense power. Definitely more sheer magical strength than a mage like me, or even several mages put together. Most everyone has a glow of magic around them, like an aura, but looking at her was like looking at the bloomin’ sun, I swear. But it was all clouded.”

“Clouded? Like possession?”

“No, that has a very distinct appearance. More like she was hiding it, or it was untapped potential. Like a bright light behind a curtain. She’s definitely not human – no human has that kind of aura. But she’s not anything I’ve ever seen. Not a shapechanger, not a mage, not even a witch or a demon. Just... totally different.” Fareeha felt chills at her explanation. To a (semi) ordinary human like her, Angela looked very human, very fragile. Her next thought was even more disconcerting.

“She’s totally different,” she muttered. “Do you mean, like a god?”

They both ruminated on the idea in silence. The magical community understood that there were many gods present in the world, in many different forms. Gods or deities were thought to be forms of pure magic that held incredible power, worshipped over millennia by awestruck humans. Amongst the hunters that Fareeha had met, no one had ever heard of someone actually finding a god. Most of them existed in dimensions that humans couldn’t understand, or were so old that their identity and power were lost to the sands of time. Some members of the magical community didn’t even believe that they existed anymore.

“I don’t know,” Lena replied in a quiet voice. “That’s what’s so scary. I just don’t know, Fareeha. With that kind of power at her disposal, she could wipe out everyone on the block, if not the whole city. I don’t like it.”

“Me neither,” Fareeha said grimly. “But I saw something tonight that I can’t explain either. We need to figure out what’s going on. Angela is the key, I can just feel it.” Lena paused, searching Fareeha’s face, before nodding. Thankful for her trust, Fareeha followed her inside.

As soon as they got into the house, Fareeha made a beeline for the kitchen. She began fixing a pot of coffee (she had a terrible feeling that she wouldn’t be sleeping that night), then popped two Tylenol followed closely by half a bottle of water. With a look of sympathy, Lena stuck some leftovers into the microwave for her. Once she felt halfway human again, Fareeha limped to the dining table, a hot mug of coffee and bowl of mac and cheese (zapped to steaming perfection) in each hand. Angela came and sat down by her. Lena chose to remain standing, her staff leaning on the wall beside her. Raptora sat quietly on their perch by the kitchen, watching everything with keen eyes.

Knowing that she was being messy but too hungry and tired to care, Fareeha began making introductions through a mouthful of hot pasta. “Lena, meet Angela. Angela, meet Lena, my roommate. This is also Raptora, my familiar. You’ve heard them talking before.” Lena nodded to her, and Raptora bowed their head slightly. Angela acknowledged them both, her face drawn and anxious. She was still wearing Fareeha’s leather jacket on top of her strange white robes, the big shoulders making her look ridiculously small and rumpled. Even in the terrible yellow light of their dining room and her obvious exhaustion, her skin still glowed faintly, and her hands were folded neatly on the table. A small part of Fareeha’s mind noticed that her nails were perfect, glossy and straight. Cursing internally, she forced herself to focus on her food. Once she had finished the bowl, she finally felt brave enough to look up. “So,” she began awkwardly, already moving to the coffee. “Shall we begin?”

“Yes,” Angela said wearily. “I offered information, and I’m here to give it.”

At Lena’s questioning look, Fareeha began recounting the events of the night.  As she described Reaper, Lena’s eyes widened, and she gasped when Fareeha told her how the demon shattered her sigil. Angela only looked blankly at the table, her eyes haunted. When Fareeha was done, Lena leaned back in her chair and whistled. “You’re lucky to have made it out alive, and you’re the best demon hunter in Hudson City. If that thing is still at large, then we need to destroy it as quickly as possible – we’ll need everyone’s help!”

“I’m telling you, even if Reaper is powerful, he’s not like any demon I’ve ever encountered,” Fareeha insisted. “The only reason I’m alive is because there was some consciousness – something, someone – fighting Reaper from the inside. It doesn’t make any sense.” Fareeha turned to Angela. “That’s where, I assume, you come in. What can you tell us about Reaper? Why was he attacking you?”

“What are you?” Lena added. Raptora remained silent, but their piercing gaze communicated enough.

Obviously uncomfortable with all the attention suddenly trained on her, Angela cleared her throat, but her head was still held high and proud. “You are right to speculate that Reaper is not the average demon,” she began. “Reaper is significantly more powerful than the average demon.” She paused, seeming to gather her strength. “This is because the being now calling itself Reaper was formerly an angel, named Gabriel.”

A beat of silence.

“What the fuck,” Fareeha said, wonderingly. Lena did not seem able of speak, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly like a fish. Raptora was the first to recover.

 _Angels don’t exist!_ They exclaimed, feathers fluffing up in visible agitation. _Not every ancient legend or myth is true – mages and spirits have known for millennia that angels are only a fiction._ Fareeha had so many questions running through her that she couldn’t ask any of them. She only felt the bizarre sensation of her world warping and reforming itself into a new version of reality.

Lena regained her ability to speak. “What proof do you have that this is true? An angel turned into a demon? Nothing like that has ever happened before!”

Angela held up a hand, and they all fell silent, awaiting a new revelation. “You are right to say that angels do not exist in this world,” she said firmly. “Angels, as we understand it, live in a different dimension from humans, though our worlds closely overlap. Think of it like clear sheets of glass laid against each other – our realms are parallel. An angel may pass into the human world if they wish, but they spend the majority of the time in their own world. Demons come from their own world, too – but they pass into all worlds and wreak havoc.”

Even though Angela was explaining things, the amount of questions in Fareeha’s head were only multiplying to dizzying heights. Angela looked down at her folded fingers, visibly trembling. To Fareeha’s alarm, her eyes were wet. “I can only prove that what I’m saying is true in one way.” She stood up, tears in her eyes, but with a straight back and clenched  fists. The light in the room seemed to intensify.

“I was the angel named Mercy.”

Before their eyes, two vague shapes unfurled themselves from Angela’s back. They glowed with a soft golden light that filled the room with warmth. Fareeha could make out long metallic feathers like the thinnest sheets of gold, and her mind was filled with visions of another world – a flaming city, encased in light and still as a tomb; the wind buffeting her wings; clouds of an immense variety of colors and shapes; and Angela’s face, alit with joy and framed with the same golden light.

Before Fareeha could process the flashes of memory, they were gone, leaving purple afterimages on her eyelids like she had spent too long looking at the sun. Angela stood before them, small in Fareeha’s jacket, her eyes freely streaming with tears. The wings were gone. The room seemed too dark without them. A glance at her friends revealed expressions of such wonder and shock that she knew that she herself must be making the same face. Her jaw shut with a click. She had not been aware that it had been open.

Angela sat down abruptly, wiping her face with the sleeve of Fareeha’s jacket. “There was a time that just looking at me would have burnt your eyes into ash,” she said hoarsely. “I am no longer an angel. I am Fallen, trapped into a human form. I was dragged out of my world against my will by Reaper. I managed to break free when we crossed over, but I am nearly powerless now, weak and vulnerable. I ran for three days, but he found me, and if Fareeha had not been there, I would have been dead. Reaper is coming for me.”

When Lena spoke, her voice was hushed. Her eyes shone with wonder. “How was Reaper created?”

For the first time, Angela hesitated. Her eyes skated away from them, landing on Fareeha’s coffee mug. “I don’t know,” she said. “Gabriel was a soldier in the army of angels, and I only know that he was gravely injured before he turned. I was not there when it happened, but I was the first angel that he eventually attacked. If I had not fled and surrendered all my power, he would have killed me and devoured my soul.” Fareeha watched her keenly for any other explanation, but Angela offered none.

Finally, she found her voice. “If he is so dangerous, then he must be stopped. Gabriel might be alive under there somewhere, but we need to stop Reaper. We need to kill the demon, and hope that the angel will survive.” She turned to look at Lena, her mind racing. “Lena, I’m not asking you to have any part in this. This is my job and my duty, but you –“

“I’m in,” Lena interrupted firmly. “You can’t do this alone, and we’ll need all of our friends’ help.” Glowing with affection, Lena held out her fist, and Fareeha bumped it without preamble, grinning. Lena turned to Angela, her expression serious again. “I’m still not sure I believe your story,” she told her honestly.

Angela nodded in acceptance. “You would be foolish to believe just one person. There is someone in Hudson City that knew me as an angel. I will take you to him, and he will confirm my identity.”

Lena pushed off from the wall and bowed. As she did, Fareeha saw her staff disappear from her hand, finally sheathed in its pocket dimension. “Thank you,” Lena said. “And I’m sorry for trying to attack you.”

For the first time, Angela cracked a small smile. Fareeha’s heart thumped with enthusiasm. “You are forgiven. Seriously, I understand.” They resolutely shook hands, and Fareeha stood up as well.

“Angela,” Fareeha said, glancing at Lena for confirmation. When her roommate nodded, she continued, “If you’d like, you can stay at our place for the time being. The house is well-protected, and until we know more about Reaper’s movements, it would probably be safest if we kept you off the streets.”

Angela bowed her head. “That would be greatly appreciated,” she replied. “I – I don’t really know how to be a human. Until we can find Reaper, I must learn.” She hesitated, as if afraid she would offend them. “This form is quite uncomfortable. My eyes are stinging, my back hurts, and my body is weaker than three days ago... I hope I am not dying.” Her wide-eyed look betrayed genuine worry.

For the first time that night, Lena laughed. Her familiar cheerful giggle banished the last of the tension from the air, and Fareeha found herself laughing along. “Sounds like you just need a good night’s sleep! Don’t you worry – tomorrow, we can ‘teach’ you to be human, but for tonight, let me give you a tour.”

As her roommate led a bewildered Angela away from the table, Fareeha turned to look at Raptora. Their eyes met hers, and held her gaze in a long, searching look. After a moment, they bowed their proud head. _You made the right choice, Fareeha. Ana would have been proud._

Fareeha smiled, and got up to wash her dishes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the wonderful comments on the last chapter! I was going to wait but I got too excited, so here's chapter 2~ Thanks for reading, and you can find me on tumblr as kirishism <3


	3. Chapter 3

_A dying campfire flickered in the darkness, illuminating the rough stone wall behind it. Fareeha shivered, feeling an unfamiliar chill in the air. She bent to blow on the glowing embers, but her breath did nothing. When she looked down at her hands, they were gone. She had no corporeal body. For some reason, she felt no fear at this. She only watched and waited, alert for the prickling of her Eye._

_Something rustled in the darkness, but she saw nothing but shadows. A hand appeared suddenly over the embers, small and dark. A low voice murmured something she couldn’t hear, and the flames leapt to life, bringing light to the tiny cave. Fareeha stared at the gravelly floor, the rough-hewn walls, and the human form huddled in front of the fire. She wanted to edge closer to see the person’s face, but she was rooted to the spot._

_Done tending to the fire, the figure cast off their sleeping bag and sat up. It was a woman, in her late middle age, hair already gone white and kept in a thick braid over her shoulder. She methodically rolled up her bed roll, and began to dig in her bag for food. As she turned to face the fire, Fareeha felt her heart turn to stone in her chest._

_Almond-shaped brown eyes. A prominent nose above a small, neat mouth. Those familiar laugh lines._

_A faded tattoo under her right eye. The Eye of Horus._

_Ana Amari hummed quietly as she set coffee to brew over the fire, and Fareeha screamed._

Jerking awake, Fareeha choked on the yell working its way up her throat. Shoving her hand against her mouth to keep herself quiet, she straightened up. Her breaths came in quick and ragged, and her heart pounded at her temples like a persistent alarm. With shaking fingers she felt the tattoo below her own eye, but the Eye of Horus did not react at all.

The inexplicable horror of the dream faded slowly away, leaving her sweaty and exhausted. Totally disoriented, she stared until the details of her surroundings finally soaked into her. She was sitting hunched at her desk, apparently having fallen asleep over the archaic scrolls she had been studying. The small clock by her bed read close to seven in the morning, and weak blue light pushed its way between the slats of the window blinds as if to confirm the early hour. Outside the yellow halo of her desk lamp, her room seemed too-dark and too-alien.

Shivering, Fareeha pushed away from the desk and stood up, wincing in pain as her injured ankle protested. She regarded the rumpled sheets of her bed with doubt before giving up on sleep for the night. Fishing an old hoodie from the laundry and shoving her torso through it, she padded into the kitchen. The house was hushed with darkness, but anything was better than being in her room at that moment. Trying to be as quiet as possible, she set another pot of coffee to brew and wandered to the bathroom, downing a pair of Tylenol as she went. The yellow fluorescent light and warm linoleum helped to banish some of her fear.

Fareeha regarded herself sternly in the mirror. “Just a dream,” she muttered, pointing severely at herself. “Don’t think about it.” She bent over and splashed her face with cold water from the sink, and proceeded determinedly through the rest of her morning routine. She brushed her teeth, hastily re-braided her hair, and used a bit of concealer to hide the deep circles under her eyes. Nodding at herself in the mirror, she left the bathroom and went back into her room, fetching the scrolls.

Unwilling to stay in her room but also loathe to wake the sleeping inhabitants of the living room, Fareeha ended up sitting on the bathroom floor, trying to stretch her ankle out by doing simple exercises. Sipping her coffee pensively, she continued where she left off.

Ana left her entire library of magical texts and histories when she disappeared, and Fareeha guarded her mother’s collection jealously. No demon hunter worth their holy water would shirk their responsibility over their most potent weapon against the creatures of the dark: knowledge. So Fareeha combed through every archaic text that mentioned Christian mythos and creatures associated with Christianity, for mentions of angels.

In the histories and guides commonly used by urban hunters like herself, she found nothing. No recorded sightings within the last hundred years, no eyewitness accounts, no mysterious deaths that could be linked to an angel. She looked in the grimoires and magical texts that she had collected, and found nothing. She skimmed her mother’s journals (worn and beaten from the amount of times she had re-read them)and found nothing.

Only when she looked through her battered and stained King James Bible did she find documentation of angels. She read the passages over and over, trying to piece together their abilities, combat, histories – anything. Hunters and mages generally avoided religious texts like the Bible, but Fareeha could think of nothing else. She dog-eared every page of the Bible with any mention of angels, but ran out of ideas soon after. Lost, she gathered up her scrolls and put them away. It seemed that she would have to trust in Angela and the vision that she saw, and meet with the person she mentioned.

Her coffee finished, Fareeha shuffled back into the kitchen to put the mug in the sink. Sunlight was coming earnestly through the windows now, and her stomach grumbled for something heartier than black coffee. She opened the fridge, staring sightlessly inside while her exhausted mind swam with visions of angels.

“Good morning.” The light voice startled Fareeha out of her reverie, and she banged her head ungracefully against the top of the fridge. Cursing under her breath, she straightened back up and let the fridge door swing shut.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?” she asked, rubbing the back of her head ruefully.

Only Angela’s face was visible from the nest of blankets on the couch. Her golden hair looked dull and tangled, stuck to the side of her face. Despite her unkempt appearance, her eyes were clear and almost glowing blue in the relative gloom of the living room. One of her shoulders was bare over the lip of the blanket, showing off a soft collarbone –

Fareeha jerked her eyes away, glad for the dark skin that disguised the blush inflaming the back of her neck. Angela did not seem to take notice of her state of undress, and Fareeha turned resolutely back to the fridge. “I slept... well,” Angela replied, her voice hazy with drowsiness. “I feel much better than last night. Do humans... sleep... often?”

Fareeha couldn’t contain a wry chuckle at that. “Yes. Every night, in fact. We don’t really know why, but sleeping recharges energy and boosts healing. For a human, sleep is pretty important.” She took eggs from the fridge and popped bread into their ancient toaster, wiggling the power cord to turn it on. “Would you like food? I don’t know if angels eat...”

“Angels eat too, but not in any way that a human would understand,” Angela explained. “And yes, please. My human body’s hunger feels very similar to what it was before.” Nodding in acknowledgement, Fareeha cracked two eggs into the frying pan and began making breakfast.

By the time the fried eggs on toast were finished, Lena slouched into the room, her T-shirt hanging loosely from her shoulders. “’Mornin’,” she yawned, collapsing into a dining chair and putting her feet up. Her eyes were not even open yet. Fareeha nudged her feet off, already setting her usual bowl of cereal and cup of coffee (more sugar than coffee) on the table in front of her. “Thanks,” Lena mumbled, already inhaling cereal.

Fareeha ruffled Lena’s bird’s nest hair into an even bigger mess, and walked to hand the plate of breakfast to Angela. She seemed unwilling to leave her blanket nest, so Fareeha settled into the chair next to her and began chewing. Next to her, Raptora stirred on their perch. _Good morning,_ they said warmly, untucking their head from under their wing. They allowed Fareeha to reach up and stroke the feathers on their wings, before they stretched. _It seems I must go hunting,_ they said. _Would you mind opening the window for me?_ Mouth full of toast, Fareeha nodded and reached backwards to open the window, letting bright sunshine into the room.

They ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Fareeha finally began to feel human again, with sunlight at her back and the company of her friends, old and new. Her dream of earlier felt like just that – a dream.

Lena was the first to finish, standing up from her chair and stretching her arms above her head. “Thanks for breakfast, as always, Fareeha,” she said, sounding much more awake. She brought her plate to the sink, then disappeared back into her room, leaving Fareeha alone with Angela.

All of the easy companionship from earlier was gone, and Fareeha abruptly realized that she still knew next to nothing about the woman licking her fingers clean of crumbs on her couch. Trying to fill the silence, she tried, “So is the food good?” then inwardly cursed her ineptitude with talking to beautiful girls.

Angela smiled shyly, and all other thoughts fled from her mind. “It was delicious, thank you. I feel much better.” Fareeha could only nod mutely, and stood up to take their plates and bring them to the sink. Before she could embarrass herself even further, Lena reappeared, dressed in her running clothes and already stretching.

Eager to make plans for the day, Fareeha said, “When you come back from your run, do you want to drive us to meet the person that Angela mentioned? We could get some info from them, then go ask around the Undercity, if you want.”

Lena perked up immediately, talking excitedly as she snapped on her dorky orange running goggles. “Sounds good to me! We can leave whenever you’re ready, Angela.” With that, she put her headphones in her ears and darted out the door.

“Speaking of being ready,” Angela ventured. “I hate to impose upon your hospitality anymore than I already have, but I think I need to wash my body.” She looked down at the blankets, and plucked at the white robes she was still wearing. “And I would appreciate some new clothes.” 

Waving away Angela’s concerns and extremely glad to have something to do, Fareeha went immediately into her room. She searched desperately for clothes that were actually clean, grabbed a fresh towel, and showed Angela to the bathroom. She showed her how to use the shower and soaps, confident despite Angela’s hesitance that she would be able to figure it out.

“But where does all the water come from? Is it not bad to waste such a valuable resource?”

Fareeha laughed helplessly as she tried to answer Angela’s questions honestly. After her third attempt to explain city water systems, she ended up looking up a video on her phone to show her how it all worked. Seeing “Moving pictures, Fareeha! What!” on her screen only launched another volley of questions, which Fareeha had to wave down with a promise that she would explain later. Angela eventually ran out of questions, and disappeared into the shower. Still chuckling, Fareeha went back to her room to get ready. She shucked off her wrinkled, dirty work clothes and changed into comfortable jeans. She kept her breastplate on under her hoodie, however. Her sword once again strapped across her back and her boots laced, she wandered back into the living room.

“Hey, welcome back,” she said to Lena and Raptora, who were lounging in the living room and chatting. Lena was already dressed herself, though she still looked fairly windswept from her run. “Wait, how did –“ Fareeha began, then stopped herself, before Lena could laugh at her. “You know, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to living with a time mage.”

“Looks like you need some... time ... to get used to me,” Lena retorted, giving Fareeha an exaggerated wink and double finger pistols. Fareeha groaned in mock agony as Raptora chuckled heartily. As they exchanged progressively worse time puns, Angela reappeared.

Fareeha had given her a spare T-shirt and some old leggings to wear, as well as a sweater to stave off the fall chill. Everything looked a little baggy, but it was more manageable than the white robes (now folded neatly in the laundry basket).  “How do I look?” Angela asked anxiously. “Like a human?”

Lena laughed and reassured her, but Fareeha could say nothing. Dressed in her clothes, with her messy wet hair and warm smile, Angela looked like she had done more than just spend the night. “You look fine,” she managed. Lena’s sharp eyes darted immediately to her, and she turned swiftly away to hide her face. She knew that her roommate had noticed the change in her voice, though.

“Let’s go!” Lena exclaimed, snatching her keys from the hook by the door. Raptora settled lightly on Fareeha’s shoulder, and they left the house together.

\----

Raptora hated riding in the car, so they agreed to follow them in the sky. Angela was given the front seat to navigate, and Fareeha lounged in the back. The familiar grumble of Lena’s car was already putting her to sleep. The early morning, the bad dreams, and the pain in her ankle were exhausting, and she rubbed her eyes blearily. Lena and Angela chatted quietly in the front.

For someone who had no prior knowledge of street rules or how human traffic worked, Angela was a surprisingly good navigator. “If I remember correctly, his house is to the north of the city,” she was saying.

“Who is he?” Lena asked. Fareeha leaned forward in her seat, interested.

“His name is Reinhardt,” Angela replied slowly. “Wilhelm Reinhardt. A hunter I met many years ago. I don’t know if he will even remember me.”

“If he was a hunter, why did he keep the existence of angels a secret?” Fareeha asked, thinking about all the hunter texts and journals she had been looking through. “It seems like a pretty monumental discovery to me.”

“I have no idea,” Angela said. “I haven’t seen him since that time. The angels keep track of humans that know of our existence, so all I know is that he is alive. Nothing else, really.” She ducked her head sheepishly. “Sorry.”

“I’m glad you’re taking us to him,” Fareeha assured her firmly. “We need all the information we can get.”

“I don’t know,” Lena said, her voice full of doubt. “Have you even heard of a Reinhardt around the Undercity, Fareeha?” At Angela’s suggestion, she turned off the highway.

“No,” Fareeha replied. She flipped through her mental inventory of all the hunters she knew in Hudson City, but the name didn’t ring a bell. “If he’s an older hunter, he might be retired from the work. Otherwise, we would have to ask around.”

They lapsed into thoughtful silence. Angela occasionally gave them directions, leading Lena through the maze of suburbs off the highway. In less than fifteen minutes they were driving through farmland, the road dwindling to two badly-maintained concrete lanes. Fareeha saw the occasional cow and tractor in the distant fields, but not much else. She couldn’t fathom why an active hunter would live in a place so remote from the action in the city. Reinhardt must have been retired for many years.

Finally, they turned off the road. Through a winding drive-way closely lined with tall hedges, then up to a large, traditional farm house. Old but well-maintained, it was painted a cheery sky blue that didn’t match the dark trees and bushes surrounding it. Fareeha imagined that from the outside, it would look like part of the woods. An ancient oak tree guarded the side of the house, one gnarled branch supporting a worn tire swing that swayed forlornly in the slow breeze. Lena let the car’s engine die. Without the comforting white noise of cars and people, the silence of the country house felt abruptly oppressive.

They disembarked, and Fareeha whistled sharply into the sky. Raptora’s answering cry was distant but growing closer. They stood still in the driveway, looking up at the dark windows. There was a heavy sense of foreboding in the air that Fareeha didn’t like one bit. Her fingers itched to have her sword in her hand.

“This is the place,” Angela said, though she sounded uncertain. Her hair was dry now, sticking up in unruly waves that she impatiently tucked behind her ear. “It’s just as I remembered it. The oak tree is much taller, though.”

Fareeha only had the time to wonder how long ago Angela must have met this hunter if the oak tree, surely centuries old, was shorter – before a deafening crash broke the silence like a bomb.

Someone screamed inside, and Fareeha’s sword was in her hands before she could think. Lena was already grasping her staff, her eyes wide with new fear. Angela could only gasp and look to the house. “What –“ Another loud crashing sound, and the glass in one of the downstairs windows shattered. The whole house seemed to shudder, and Fareeha wasted no more time trying to see what was going on. She jogged onto the porch, stance low so that her head was below the windows. Lena and Angela followed close behind, their combined footsteps creaking loudly on the aging floorboards. Fareeha winced at the sound, but moved forward, opening the dusty screen door and testing the door knob. The front door swung open, revealing a neat foyer floored with shining hardwood. Immediately, the Eye of Horus began to prickle, warning her of danger.

Fareeha strained her ears, but didn’t hear anything. She wondered if there was a muffling spell around the house, probably attached to a sigil that constantly renewed itself. Gesturing at her companions to wait, she dug a piece of chalk from her bag and drew a quick sigil on the burnished floor. With magical power lent from Lena, she whispered an incantation over the runes. A _puff_ of air rose from the sigil, and Fareeha nodded as all the concealment spells in the house were blocked by her incantation.

Instantly a deep, human roar came from the hallway around the corner, followed by the unmistakable sound of splintering wood. Biting her lip at the sound, Fareeha darted into the hallway, all stealth abandoned for the sake of expedience. Her Eye burned brighter, and she knew with grim assurance that a demon must be inside the house.

As the hallway opened up into a large living room, Fareeha stopped dead. Lena and Angela ran full-tilt into her back, making her grunt. The three of them stared in silent shock.

A huge man, easily over six and a half feet tall, stood panting in an epicenter of wrecked furniture. He held a huge, metallic warhammer in one hand as if it weighed nothing, and a shield the size of Fareeha’s entire body in the other. His shoulder length white hair was in disarray around his face, framed by a full, snowy beard. A large scar bisected his left eye, leaving it white and useless.

Fareeha followed his furious gaze across the room, where a human body lay amidst the wreckage of a formerly handsome mahogany dining room table. She couldn’t contain her gasp, but her Eye throbbed insistently. “That’s a demon,” she said urgently to Lena, pulling her back as her friend tried to rush to the demon’s side. Lena nodded tightly, gripping her staff. Blue magic darted through her fingers, like she was ready to attack anything in the room.

The man’s gaze swung over to her, eyes still glinting with the fury of battle. Fareeha wanted to back away, but held firm, her sword held downward in front of her. “Are you Wilhelm Reinhardt?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. “Demon hunter?”

The hunter lowered his ridiculous hammer, but did not immediately stand down. His expression morphed slowly from battle rage to blank confusion. After a long pause, he spoke.

“Ana Amari? Is that you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about the late update you guys ; u ;  
> School is starting and I will probably have to change to a biweekly (updating once every two weeks) schedule to accommodate for school work.  
> This fic reached over 1000 hits yesterday and I am unbelievably amazed that my smol lesbians are making it big... Thank you all for reading and commenting!


	4. Chapter 4

“Ana? It’s been so long... How could you possibly have..” Reinhardt’s eyes were filling quickly with tears, and his expression was one of mingled joy and grief so intense that Fareeha wanted to look away.

All of the confusion, fear and pain that had permeated her dream that morning came rushing back. Her heart thudded in her ears , and her stomach clenched painfully. She felt sick, for no good reason, and it was like she was a child again: peeking through cracked doors as her mother talked to other hunters, her comrades. Ana’s proud profile, larger-than-life, unknowable and untouchable. Her mother, the best hunter in the city, a hero. A constant protector, like a brick wall or a mountain – until she was gone, and leaving her daughter alone with only a note and some old scrolls.

“How do you know that name,” Fareeha snarled. She raised her sword, shaking, feeling unexpected rage at hearing her mother’s name from the lips of this stranger. Lena’s cool hand landed on her shoulder, restraining her.

Reinhardt stared at her in open bewilderment, his gaze searching her face. “Wait,” he muttered. “You are too young to be Ana. What is going on here?” Before Fareeha could respond, splintered wood creaked, and the prone human form sprung back to life. An impact like that should have broken many bones, but the demon’s grip on the human body it possessed was like iron. The demon stood up, heedless of its broken limbs. Fareeha’s sword automatically swung from Reinhardt to the demon.

“You hunters are always so foolish and sentimental,” the creature sneered, its voice high and rasping. “Don’t you know that Ana Amari is _dead?_ ” It snarled and was in the air in a second, springing with inhuman speed at Reinhardt’s raised shield. Fareeha cried out and rushed forward, but Lena’s shouted incantation stopped her in her tracks.

Blue magic suffused the room, and the demon was just... _stopped_. It hung in the air, face twisted in savage joy, fingers outstretched to tear Reinhardt to shreds. The particles of dust in the air around it were frozen in place, as Lena’s time magic held the thing in a bubble of stasis. “Now, Fareeha!” Lena ordered, voice strained with exertion. Without question, Fareeha planted her feet and held up her fingers in the familiar sigil.

“ _In the name of Horus, I strike you. In the name of Horus, I immobilize you. In the name of Horus, you will obey!”_

Her Eye blazed, and the white-blue magic curled itself around the demon’s limbs like rope, tugging it down to the sigil burned into the floor. Lena gasped, and with an audible _pop_ the time magic burst. Immediately, Fareeha’s spell slammed the demon to the ground, where it lay writhing. Fareeha strode without fear to it, holding her blade to its neck. _“You’re too weak to be attacking this hunter on your own, insect,”_ she said coldly in Arabic. _“Who are you working for?”_

Her magic was slowly forcing the demon’s spiritual form from its human host, and red smoke began to pour from its mouth and nose. Its eyes were blackening, and its face was frozen in a rictus of fury. “You may have rid this city of us, but we always come back, _bitch!_ ” it spit into her face. “Talon will never die. Reaper will never die! This is your warning! We are coming.” It laughed shrilly, smoke freely leaking between its black teeth. Before Fareeha could slash its throat, the demon roared. Red smoke rose alarmingly quickly from the host’s chest. Sensing that it was attempting to escape, Fareeha swung her sword through the cloud, severing it easily from the body. The demon’s spirit dissipated into the air, leaving the body of a human man.

Fareeha released the magic, chest heaving. The sigil winked out like a light. She reached down and gently closed the man’s unseeing eyes. She inspected the body, taking note of the ragged clothes, black teeth, and broken bones. “It must have killed you long ago,” she murmured to it. “I’m sorry. I hope you can find rest now.”

A large hand patted her shoulder, and Fareeha straightened up, groaning as the magic took its toll on her body. Lena was at her side at once, supporting her other side and helping her into a nearby chair. Murmuring her thanks to Lena, Fareeha looked up at Reinhardt, who still held her shoulder. She held out the hand that wasn’t holding her sword. “Fareeha Amari, demon hunter. Nice to meet you,” she said, mustering a small smile.

Reinhardt resolutely shook her hand with both of his, face breaking out into a huge smile. “Ana’s daughter,” he said in open wonder. “I am honored to see you fight, Fareeha.” Before he could say more, loud footsteps pounded down the stairs. Fareeha sprung back up, her ankle instantly protesting. Angela, still in the doorway, darted to Fareeha’s side. Lena raised her staff, already preparing her magic.

_“Grandfather!”_ a loud voice cried. A young woman stomped into the room, auburn hair in disarray around her face. “ _What_ did I tell you about fighting demons in the house! We just finished repairing the downstairs and now I have to build another dining set! I – “ She cut herself off, staring down at the scene before her. “Oh.”

“Brigitte,” Reinhardt exclaimed in the silence that followed. “I’m glad you’re safe! We have, ah, guests.” Brigitte’s brown eyes darted between Reinhardt and Fareeha, until she sighed and rubbed a hand through her hair. “Fareeha, this is my granddaughter, Brigitte,” Reinhardt said. “I’m retired, see, and she has been staying in my home to take care of me.”

“I’m more like your personal carpenter,” Brigitte chuckled, more relaxed than before. “Please, sit down. Unfortunately, most of our furniture is broken, but I can get some tea...” She trailed off as she went to the kitchen, carefully avoiding the corpse and wreckage of the dining room. At Reinhardt’s insistence, Lena and Angela took their seats. Lena already looked grey from the exertion of her magic, and Angela  sat with her fingers twisted together, biting her lip.

Watching Brigitte bustle through the semi-destroyed kitchen preparing tea, Fareeha asked, “Does this happen often...?”

Reinhardt’s face darkened. “No,” he rumbled. “The attacks have only been happening recently. I’d say about two months. Always one or two lesser demons riding the bodies of some hapless folk. It’s not usually a challenge to defeat them.” He fell silent as Brigitte handed him a cup of tea, then went on after she sat down. “The strangest part is that they always manage to get past the barriers and protections we put around the house. I built this house myself, many years ago, and there are protective enchantments carved into every square foot of this building. Yet the demons walk inside like they are nothing.”

Flabbergasted, Lena asked, “But why? The spellwork required to get past that network of enchantments must be incredibly complex, so why send only one or two weak demons at a time?”

“We don’t know,” Brigitte replied grimly. “We’ve interrogated every single demon just as you have, and only this last one has said anything of use.”

Talon. Reaper. Fareeha rolled the names around in her head, bewildered. She had heard nothing about this at all, although she always kept an ear out for gossip from other hunters. She hadn’t heard about Reinhardt either, which bothered her almost as much as hearing about Talon. Such an obviously accomplished hunter should not have escaped her notice, or the notice of the hunter community in general. _He apparently knew my mother, though,_ Fareeha thought with a stab of resentment. Her mother had never mentioned a Reinhardt in her journals, even though she had had few friends during her career.

“We’ll have to look into it,” she said to Lena. “It might have something to do with Angela.” Her roommate nodded, and Fareeha turned back to Reinhardt. “Reinhardt, Lena is my friend and roommate. She is a time mage.”

“That explains the spell you used. I haven’t met such a talented time mage in over a decade!” Lena giggled bashfully at Reinhardt’s praise and waved him off.

Fareeha gestured to Angela, suddenly apprehensive. “And this... this is Angela. A new friend of ours. You might remember her as the angel named Mercy.”

Reinhardt looked blankly at Angela for a long moment. Just as Fareeha became sure that he did not recognize her at all, he gasped. “ _Mercy_ ,” he murmured, voice uncharacteristically soft with wonder. “It has been so long. You look very... different.”

Angela tucked her wild hair behind her ears again, suddenly self-conscious. “Yes,” she laughed nervously. “It is good to see you again, Reinhardt. I _am_ very different now, and unfortunately, I will require your assistance again.” The old hunter was already nodding before she had finished speaking, his smile very serious.

“Of course, of course. Mer – Angela, you saved my life a hundred and fifty years ago. I have been meaning to return the favor!” His laugh was loud and booming, and he slapped Fareeha on the shoulder, almost knocking her out of her chair. “We hunters are always like that – we pay our debts, but usually very late!”

Brigitte appeared at his shoulder, tutting as she handed everyone a cup of tea from a tray. “Stop hitting our guests, Grandfather. Here, Fareeha, have some tea.” Fareeha accepted the tea gratefully. There was a pause before she looked up in confusion.

“Wait. What did you just say? A hundred and fifty _years_?” She was sure she had misheard.

Brigitte slapped her hand to her forehead in exasperation, and Reinhardt patted her arm apologetically. “That _was_ supposed to be a secret,” he said in amusement. “But fear not, Brigitte. Ana knew, so it is only right that her daughter knows as well.” He turned to the three of them, suddenly grave. “This is the secret of Wilhelm Reinhardt, demon hunter. I am almost seven hundred years old.”

“Holy _shit,_ ” Lena said in bafflement, and Reinhardt’s living room window shattered with a loud crash.

Everyone ducked out of the way of the broken glass, and Raptora’s shrill shriek split the air. “Wait!” Fareeha yelled, but Raptora had already swooped at Reinhardt’s head. The room descended into chaos as Reinhardt reeled back in his chair, his face a blur of angry bird feathers.

It took another ten minutes to pull Raptora off of the old hunter and explain the situation to them, while Brigitte fussed over the shallow cuts all over Reinhardt’s face.

_In my defense,_ Raptora said stiffly, _I had not received a signal from Fareeha, and I thought the worst. I do apologize, Reinhardt._ They preened themself with all of the predatory dignity they could muster. Which was a lot. Fareeha stifled a snicker.

The old hunter only laughed and waved them off. “It is no problem, old friend of my friend,” he boomed. “I got much worse than this chopping firewood the other day! You just surprised me, is all.”

“This has been a great reunion and everything,” Lena cut in, “But I would still like to hear about how you have managed to stay alive for so long.” When everyone looked at her, she blushed to the tips of her ears. “I’m a time mage, okay? It’s my business to research these types of things!”

“I would like to know, as well,” Fareeha said. His great age explained why she had not heard about him from younger hunters, but she itched to know how he knew Ana. “If you don’t mind,” she added quickly.

Reinhardt nodded in understanding, his smile falling into a more serious expression. “It’s a long, sad story,” he said heavily. “I will try to be short, however. I have a feeling this demon situation will need to be resolved sooner rather than later.

“I was born Reinhardt Wilhelm in the year 1317, in a small village in what you would now call Germany. People just called me Will back then. If you know your history, that period was marked by much chaos and death for Europe. Famine, war, and plague were commonplace, and our village was very poor. In an attempt to escape a hard life trying to be a farmer, I decided to leave my village and join the army of the local lord. Our particular region was hounded by magical beings of all kinds. Through a series of misadventures, and the unfortunate death of my parents and of our lord by the hands of a demon, I became apprenticed to a hunter. He called himself Lindholm, from the North, and while short of stature and fierce of temper, he was an amazing fighter and craftsman. I was angry and directionless then, and he helped me to channel that frustration into something useful. He was a great friend to me in those times.

“Lindholm and I traveled the width of Europe fighting creatures of darkness, and we met many strange things that are gone from this world today. In France, we heard that a man possessed by a demon was harassing a small village. It was nothing we had not seen before, so we journeyed to this village. I was around thirty years old then, a seasoned fighter and well respected by Lindholm, a hunter in my own right. We tracked the creature down in the woods, and it quickly showed itself to be a much bigger threat than a mere demon. It was nothing I had ever seen before, its human form barely holding its power in check. It laughed at our efforts to vanquish it, and had us almost defeated before I could blink. I did not understand.”

“Was it an angel?” Fareeha asked before she could restrain herself. Reinhardt smiled mysteriously.

“No, it was not an angel. I’ll get to that later. As we lay bleeding in the grass, it stopped and looked at me. I sensed a huge, glittering consciousness in the thing, far more cunning and powerful than these simple hunters could ever defeat. As soon as I realized this, Lindholm lunged at it and gave a last effort to kill it.” Reinhardt shook his head, his eyes closing in sorrow. With a pang, Fareeha saw the true grief that still haunted him for a friend that was centuries dead. “Lindholm fell, and in my grief and fear the only thing I could do was surrender and beg for the thing’s mercy. I hoped that in surrendering I could flee and try to find vengeance for my friend when I could gather my strength. Maybe with an army in tow.” The great old hunter chuckled ruefully. “Even if I had managed to do that, I doubt it would have made a difference. No, the thing would not grant me mercy. It laughed in my face again, and revealed its true identity and the depth of my folly.

“It called itself an incomprehensible name, but I knew with certainty that I had encountered a god.” Reinhardt paused as everyone in the room took a collective breath of shock. “It seemed to be a lesser being as gods went” – Fareeha wanted to laughed in pure incredulity at the statement – “a trickster in soul, but with immense power nonetheless. It appeared to enjoy tormenting me and doing terrible things to human beings merely for the sport. I could do nothing against it, only prostrate myself on the ground and beg to live. It was not my finest moment.

“It seemed to actually consider my request, before laughing at me once more. It waved its hand, and I felt a sudden and huge weight press down on me, before lifting. All of my wounds had been healed, and I felt physically better and stronger than I had ever felt. Dumbstruck with confusion and reeling with grief, I only stared dumbly as the god explained that it had granted the most rare of gifts upon me: the gift of immortality.”

“Seriously?” Lena exclaimed. “It – this _god_ gave you immortality _for shits and giggles?_ ”

Reinhardt laughed his booming laugh, surprising everyone with his mirth. “That’s one way to put it, yes,” he replied. “It took me years to reach this kind of understanding, but I eventually rationalized it this way: gods are beings that exist beyond human understanding. Their logic is alien to us, and communicating with one was certainly an incredibly harrowing experience. I felt that any wrong word I said to the thing would bring either its eternal friendship or eternal hatred down upon me. It could have interpreted my request literally, or thought that the irony of letting me live beyond my mortal bounds was incredibly funny. It could even have read the lines of my fate so that it saw me doing something hundreds of years later that would benefit it in some way. I truly do not know. But it gave me this thing, warned me against falling to a sword, poison, or disease, then disappeared from the world.”

There was a long, drawn-out silence, before Brigitte stood up and refilled Fareeha’s, Lena’s, and Angela’s cups of tea. “Now you’ve heard the whole ridiculous tale, you’ll probably be needing this,” she said crisply. Fareeha could only nod, drinking her tea with more fervor than was strictly necessary. Lena only sat and gaped at Reinhardt in dumbstruck awe.

Angela bit her lip. “I knew that you were incredibly long-lived for a human, Reinhardt, but I had not heard that you had been made immortal by a god. It’s been so long since I have heard of one touching our dimensions, let alone communicating with any mortal.” She bowed her head to him. “I’m humbled to know you.”

Reinhardt smiled at her, his eye twinkling with age-old compassion. “Well now, knowing an angel is no small thing either! I’ve lived for a very long time, and even I was totally shocked to know of your existence all those years ago.” Then he turned to Fareeha. Once she looked past the jovial-grandfather persona, she could see the wickedly sharp intelligence gleaming in the old, silver eye, and the spark of determination that marked every great hunter. “Now that the proper introductions and immortality confessions are done with, I assume that you young hunters wanted something from us? How can we be of service?”

Suddenly shy, Fareeha clasped her fingers together in her lap and stared down at them. “I only met Angela last night, to be honest. She revealed herself to us because her life is in danger, and we were... not exactly the most trusting. We wanted to corroborate the existence of angels with you, and then maybe exchange some information.”

Reinhardt glanced between the three of them, his thick fingers coming up to stroke his great white beard. “Hm. Well, I can certainly say that I recognize Angela as the angel Mercy, though it took a bit of effort. She certainly looks very different from how I remember, but she is the same person. Why don’t you tell me the full story? Something tells me that this is all connected to our earlier incident with that demon.” His tone was gentle and inviting, but in his voice Fareeha could hear the ringing confidence of someone who was used to giving out orders.

Fareeha took a deep breath and began recounting the events of last night. As she stumbled over her description of Reaper, Raptora squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. It felt good to concede her information to an older and more experienced hunter, someone who could make better sense out of it than she could. “Angela named you as a contact, so we came to seek you out,” she finished. “Reaper seems to be tied up in this mess, and in demons coming back to Hudson City. We’d greatly appreciate any information you have.”

Another short silence as Reinhardt pondered their story, muttering incomprehensibly into his beard. At length, he looked up and smiled at Fareeha. “So you are the young hunter that eradicated the demon population five years ago,” he said warmly. “I am glad to finally meet you. You are truly Ana’s daughter.” Fareeha swallowed and smiled thinly at him, her mind reeling with questions about this hunter and her mother. She ruthlessly squashed them down and resolved to ask _later,_ after this whole Reaper thing was figured out. “Well,” Reinhardt continued, “Brigitte and I unfortunately know no more than you do. We live outside the city, and though we have contacts, it seems that no one has heard of this yet. Absolutely no one. That seems extremely strange, doesn’t it?” He rose out of his chair and strode purposefully out of the room for a moment, stepping gingerly around the cooling demon corpse on the floor.

“We should ... probably clean that up,” Lena said, wincing at the mess.

Brigitte waved her off. “No need to worry, we have the spells necessary,” she said. “We’re only sorry that we could not show more hospitality.” She smiled sardonically at them, cheeks dimpling. “I am not really Reinhardt’s granddaughter, as you probably have guessed. He’s more of a great-great- _great..._ well, you get the picture. Living with him is certainly never boring.”

“I can imagine,” Fareeha replied. “Living with my mother – was much the same.” She had to stop there, her throat closing around her words. Lena glanced at her with worried eyes, and Raptora nuzzled her cheek with their soft-feathered head, tinkling her hair beads.

Before Brigitte could reply, Reinhardt came thundering back into the room, a yellowed sheet of paper in his huge hands. “I finally found it,” he said, and handed the paper to Fareeha. She glimpsed the graceful, loopy handwriting and almost dropped it. It was definitely Ana Amari’s script.

“A list of names,” she said in wonderment. Reinhardt’s name and address was written at the top. “Who are all these people?”

“This may come as a shock, Fareeha,” Reinhardt said gravely. “I think that there may be a reason why we are the only ones who know about this demon movement. The only common thread between us is your mother.”

Fareeha could only close her eyes slowly as Lena exclaimed, “They’re going after friends of Fareeha’s mum? But _why?”_ Her heart felt like it was a stone sinking into the pit of her stomach. Her dream from this morning, the phantom pains of her Eye, and Angela’s appearance. Of course, after all these years of fruitless searching, everything came back to her mother.

“But Fareeha stumbled upon me in a random alleyway,” Angela interjected. “That was only chance.”

_There is nothing random about this,_ Raptora said grimly. _Fareeha’s Eye of Horus warned us. Something in the twisting paths of fate gave way, and something is destined to happen. Soon._

“I don’t know the reason for any of this,” Reinhardt said, his eye distant. “Ana disappeared, but right before...”

Fareeha snapped back to reality. “Right before? Did she contact you?” Her voice came out harsher than she intended, but she didn’t care in that moment.

“No,” Reinhardt replied with finality. “She did not. She only sent me this list of names through her most secure channels, and then I never heard from her again. I have been in contact with each of these hunters since then, but not more recently than a year ago.”

She stared down at the list clutched in her hands. Ten names, ten addresses around the city. “We have to find them and speak with them,” she murmured, then stood up. “Thank you so much for your help, Reinhardt. And for telling us your story.” She held out her hand, and he shook it again resolutely. “We’re honored to meet you.”

“If you need anything, I am by your side,” the old hunter said earnestly. “Ana never said that you grew up to be a hunter... I am proud to call you my ally.” He shook each of their hands, bowed his great head to Raptora, then thumped his granddaughter on the shoulder. “Would you look at that, Brigitte? It seems that retirement does not suit me!”

“Of course not,” Brigitte smiled. “Looks like I’ll have to re-outfit the forge.” After a final round of goodbyes, she walked them out of Reinhardt’s house and bid them a good day. Fareeha stared up at the cloudless blue sky, and sighed deeply.

“That was harrowing,” Lena said, leaning tiredly against her car’s door. “Mystery upon mystery. My head hurts.”

“Same here,” Fareeha said, rubbing her eyes. With all the excitement over with, she felt exhaustion settle into her bones. It wasn’t even noon yet.

“Thank you for listening to me,” Angela blurted. She wrung her slender hands, looking bashfully to the side. “You didn’t need to do any of this for me. I – “

“It’s alright, Angela,” Fareeha said firmly. Out of some mad impulse, she placed a hand on Angela’s shoulder. “Even if this hadn’t involved my mom out of some strange twist of fate, we’d still protect you. We’ll help you gain your powers back.” Angela seemed startled by the touch, but eventually she smiled wanly and placed her hand upon Fareeha’s.

“I still wish I could repay you,” she insisted. “I am in your debt.” Fareeha tried not to blush and withdrew her hand.

“Don’t worry about it,” she told her again, and opened the door to the backseat for her. As Angela and Lena got into the car, and Raptora took off from her shoulder, she looked up at the sky again for a long moment. The wind stirred through her hair, knocking her braids against her cheek. It was truly a beautiful day.

She folded up the piece of paper clutched in her hand, tucked it into her hoodie pocket, and got into the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello everyone! i've finally updated this fic after.... almost a year..... ahahah   
> thank you to everyone that has kudos'd and commented on this fic although it is so short and was totally abandoned while i was in school. your kind words and attention have inspired me to pick it up again, and i've been whittling away at some new chapters since the beginning of the summer. i could not have done it without you <3 
> 
> hopefully i can keep this whole writing shtick up. here's to more updates! soon ! haha


	5. Chapter 5

It was an unseasonably bright and warm day in Hudson City, but the inside of _The Wolf Bar_ was cool and comfortingly dark. When it wasn’t acting as a haven for local gay werewolves, it was a pretty good restaurant for humans. Lena, Angela, and Fareeha sat at the wood-paneled bar, tucking enthusiastically into lunch. A dark-skinned young man named Maxwell manned the bar, leaning casually against the row of taps against the wall.

Fareeha looked up just in time to see Maxwell smile invitingly at her, revealing his unnaturally long and pointy teeth. “I’m assuming you’ll want to talk to Jesse?” he asked, already whisking away her empty plate and sliding her a bottle of her favorite beer.

She nodded and smiled at him. “Thanks, Maxwell.”

With a nod, Maxwell disappeared into the kitchen. Tinny swing music played softly through the hidden speakers, and there weren’t any other customers in the restaurant proper.  Fareeha leaned back in her worn leather bar stool, letting herself relax a little and taking a sip of her beer.

Lena was explaining to Angela the purpose of ketchup. “I don’t really understand why food needs extra things on top of it,” Angela was saying, her voice full of doubt. “The... French... fries taste fine without it.”

Lena only giggle-snorted. “Maybe you just don’t like ketchup. That’s fair. I’m never going to get tired of you saying words like that though!”

“Like what?” Angela asked, and before Lena could answer the kitchen door swung open with a crash.

“Fareeha Amari!” came the familiar drawl, and Jesse McCree reached over the counter and took a long swallow of Fareeha’s beer. He sighed contentedly as Fareeha sputtered and snatched her drink back. “It’s been awhile! How have you been?”

Jesse McCree, or just Jesse as he liked to be called, was the young owner of _The Wolf Bar_. Despite being a college dropout and a werewolf to boot, he had turned the run down bar into a thriving local destination for college students, hipsters, and gay werewolves (though the last only came at night). He was tall, but with broad shoulders, some rather impressive sideburns, and dancing brown eyes framed by two characteristically messy curtains of brown hair. His left arm was gone at the elbow, and his shirt was pinned neatly around the stump (some kind of accident, though Fareeha had never heard him tell the story). He always had a toothpick in his mouth, had appalling table manners, a truly awful fake cowboy accent, and he was Fareeha’s close friend of many years.

He also happened to know everything there was to know about the supernatural population of Hudson City.

Fareeha only stifled her grin and poked Jesse right beneath the stupid cowboy handkerchief he wore around his neck. “As if you don’t already know, you bastard. I know you probably have two or three tails on me at any one time.” Before Jesse could reply, she turned to Angela. “Angela, this is Jesse McCree, an old friend and my chief informant. Jesse, Angela is staying with me for awhile. We’re helping her track down a demon.”

Jesse shook Angela’s hand with all sincerity. “I hope she’s treating you well in those awful dorms. You know how college kids can be.” He winked at her while Lena and Fareeha protested.

“We live in a very respectable house, thank you very much,” Lena said huffily. “If you would actually come to hang out like the friend you are then you might be able to see it.”

“Maybe when the business dies down, but that shouldn’t be any time soon!” Jesse snorted. He leaned a casual elbow on the bar, winking charmingly. “It really has been a long time. What have you two been up to? It must be midterms season, right? Anything new between you and Satya, Fareeha?”

At Angela’s curious look, Fareeha felt herself flush all the way to her ears. “You know there’s nothing new between Satya and me, Jesse. That’s old news now.” Unwilling to meet Jesse’s shrewd eyes, she took another swig of her drink. “Besides, I’m over her. I swear.”

Jesse opened his mouth to retort, but he suddenly glanced at Angela and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Well, never mind all that,” he said, making Fareeha frown. He never dropped a subject like that, especially when it came to teasing her about her abysmal love life. And why look at Angela? “What brings you to my fine establishment?” He clapped his hand to his cheek and gave them ridiculous puppy eyes. “It can’t possibly be because you miss me?”

“Absolutely not, you lout,” Lena announced, though she was grinning. “And speaking of exes, how have the Shimada brothers been?” Fareeha wanted to clap her on the shoulder for wiping the stupid smug smile off the cowboy’s face. “Which one were you dating again?”

Jesse slumped on the counter in exaggerated gloominess. “Neither of them, right now. Genji says he’s ‘focusing on music,’ whatever that means, and Hanzo won’t reply to my texts.” Despite his dramatic look of pain, Fareeha knew that Jesse had been trying to get the older Shimada’s attention for years now. He had recently tried dating Genji, but they were too much like brothers themselves and she had heard that even at the time he was still making puppy eyes at Genji’s brother.

“He’ll come to love you despite your ugly mug eventually,” Fareeha said fondly, patting him on the shoulder. “If you need an excuse to meet up with him, Lena and I can host a party some weekend and you can try your luck.” Jesse looked up from his faceplant to the counter and beamed.

“You’re the best wingman ever, Fareeha!”

Fareeha laughed smugly. “As if I’d be doing this as a free favor, McCree. No way. I need something from you first.” Suddenly serious, she held up Ana’s list of names. “Your services don’t come cheap, I know, but I need you to look at this.”

The amusement in Jesse’s dancing eyes immediately grew to something sharper, though he never dropped his easygoing smile. He picked the paper up from Fareeha’s hand and skimmed through it. “A list of your mom’s secret contacts,” he said, whistling. “Where did you get this? Her enemies would have killed for this information.”

“They’ve been trying,” Fareeha replied grimly. “We met with Reinhardt, the guy at the top of the list. Heard of him?”

“The name rings a bell, but a really old one.” Jesse’s eyes darted down the list as he chewed on his toothpick. “In fact, I remember these old hunters, but they haven’t shown up at their usual haunts for quite some time. I think I can still find them, though most of these addresses are outdated. I can get you new ones.”

Fareeha nodded in satisfaction. “Thanks a lot. It has something to do with my mom, but that’s not the entire reason I’m interested.” She glanced at Angela, who smiled uncertainly at her. “Demons have come back to Hudson City, and they’re after Angela, and they’re after anyone connected with my mom.”

“Demon activity?” Jesse frowned down at the old sheet of paper as if it had personally offended him. “That’s news to me.” If he seemed disturbed by the prospect, he did not show it.

If the news hadn’t reached the ears of _The Wolf Bar,_ then certainly no one else knew. “They’ve been operating under the utmost secrecy, I think. They’re calling themselves Talon.” She went on to explain the events of the last few days, though she neglected to mention that Angela was an angel. She had the feeling that Angela didn’t appreciate her tossing her secret around, and the information was too important to risk spreading, even to her closest friends. As she told the story, carefully omitting the relevant parts, she could feel Angela’s gaze on her. She glanced over, and Angela was smiling in gratitude.

“We don’t really know why Reaper is after Angela, but if some kind of demon organization is involved then I can understand why they might be after my mom,” Fareeha finished. That was not quite the truth, but it was enough. She could feel Jesse watching her, his eyes unreadable, but he eventually looked away and she wanted to sag in relief. He believed them.

“Well, I can certainly start by looking up these old hunters,” he said at length. “And as for the demon activity, I will make sure that no one or no _thing_ moves in the Undercity without my knowledge. If everything goes well, I’ll probably have news at the end of the week.”

“I really appreciate it,” Fareeha said seriously. “And your secrecy is appreciated too. We don’t know how we can repay you.”

“You can repay me by having that party,” Jesse replied, grinning wolfishly. “I’m going to hold you to that. It might be my only chance with Hanzo!” He folded the paper up into tiny pieces and it disappeared into his pocket. “And while I’m searching, stay out of the Undercity unless I say so.”

“Wait, all of us?” Lena interrupted indignantly. “I need to go shopping, you know!”

“Any of you showing up in the Undercity will totally blow our cover,” Jesse retorted. “Demons will definitely flock to you in such a dangerous place, like vultures to a corpse. No, let me take care of the spying, and when we find the hunters I’ll come along as muscle.”

The plan made sense, but Fareeha had to grit her teeth. She needed supplies from the Undercity as well as new weaponry, especially if she was going to be dealing with demons again. They would just have to lay low for the week. She hated not going patrolling, but if demons were tracking her, it was probably best to stay put.

Jesse took their plates and accepted their money (“I’d usually say that it’s on the house, but I’ll never refuse free money!”), waving them away with promises to come visit and to meet again. Fareeha left _The Wolf Bar_ feeling less frustrated, though they had not made as much progress as she would have wanted. She sagged against the side of Lena’s car wearily, shading her eyes against the heat of the sun. The warmth felt good against her face, but the early morning and exertions of earlier were taking their toll. Her eyes were gritty with lack of sleep, and her ankle throbbed insistently.

“I’m ready to head home whenever you are,” Lena called as she hopped into the driver’s seat. Fareeha could only nod and slide into the backseat.

\----

By the time they got home, Fareeha felt her forehead burning with fever, and her mouth was dry and chalky. She pulled herself out of the car and stumbled into the house, sinking ungracefully onto their couch. Angela was by her side at once, her expression open with concern.

“I’m fine,” Fareeha managed, though the room was spinning.

Raptora flapped to her from their perch across the room, claws gripping her shoulder comfortingly. _You’re burning up,_ they said, surprise and alarm palpable in their cool voice. _What’s wrong?_

Her friends were surrounding her now, their worried faces spurring her to lick her lips and try to speak. “I have no idea,” she mumbled. “I was fine earlier, but I suddenly feel very … bad.” She mopped her forehead, grimacing at her clammy fingers. “This doesn’t feel… natural.”

Lena bit her lip. “Could it be a spirit or demon? Are they attempting possession?”

_I would have felt that,_ Raptora pointed out. _Fareeha, may I?_ At her weak nod, she felt Raptora’s steely consciousness brush against the walls of her mind, gentle as a feather. The sensation was not unlike a soft breeze on her face. Raptora swept her feverish body, then clacked their beak in agitation. _There’s something attached to Fareeha’s aura, but I’ve never seen its kind before. It feels like … a tiny demon, or some fragment of a demon’s soul. It’s complex, and somehow blocking the activity of her Eye. Her body is trying to reject it, very much like a virus or infection._

Through the haze of her fatigue, she saw Lena’s face go white. “A fragment of a demon? That sounds like sorcery. Very powerful sorcery. Only corrupting sorcery can get past a ward as powerful as the Eye. A sorcerer hasn’t come to Hudson City since –“

“You’re babbling, Lena,” Fareeha said, summoning a smile to her face. She barely managed a twitch of her lips. “The Eye must be protecting me, even if the … thing is blocking it.”

She almost jumped out of her skin when Angela took one of her hands in both of hers, her anxious face swimming in her blurry vision. “How could this have happened? How do we remove it?”

_When the demon attacked, it could have been trying to place this thing on Reinhardt, but chose you instead,_ Raptora said grimly. _If this is indeed sorcery, then it would be a very useful tool for a group of demons trying to incapacitate hunters, wouldn’t it?_

“I will try to remove the fragment, though I’m not very good at complex spells like this,” Lena said, mouth pinched. “It will probably hurt.”

“I don’t care,” Fareeha said, though the thought of having something _ripped_ out of her aura only made her sweat more. “I just want it out.” Lena nodded and straightened up, her mage staff already in her hand. Before she could move, Angela put up her hand.

“Before you remove the fragment, can I try something?” She swallowed, high spots of color appearing on her cheeks. “I have been trying for the past three days to access my angelic powers, to limited success. I can’t return to my angelic form, but I think I can still channel the energy into some rudimentary healing. I can try to heal the tear so that Fareeha is not left open to possession or further corruption after Lena removes the fragment.” She bit her lip, eyes darting between Lena and Fareeha. “That is, if that’s okay with Fareeha. I know you might not trust me yet, but you three have already done so much for me –“

“That sounds like a great idea,” Lena interrupted with a smile.

“You don’t have to feel indebted,” Fareeha said with difficulty. A comforting sort of sleepiness was descending on her, which, based on the _demonic corrupting sorcery_ thing, was pretty damn alarming. “My duty as a hunter is to help. I wouldn’t have it any other –“ she cut herself off with a hiss, slapping a hand to her Eye. The pain was sudden and piercing, but receded quickly to a dull ache. “My Eye is beginning to react to the – _nngh_ – corruption,” she grit out, squeezing her eyes shut. “Whatever you’re going to do, please do it quick.”

“Alright, let’s do it,” Lena said tightly. “Brace yourself, Fareeha.” She nodded and leaned her head on the back of the sofa, trying to relax her body. Raptora squeezed her shoulder with their talons, then took off.

Angela kept their fingers tightly wound together, anchoring Fareeha to reality.

Lena began to speak Gaelic in fast, clipped syllables, and Fareeha’s vision filled with icy blue light. An arrowhead of energy slammed into the center of her chest, and she did not even scream before sliding into the darkness on the edge of her consciousness.

\-----

“Is she going to be okay?”

“I – yes. It was really tough to patch the tear, but her Eye should rebuild her shields in a couple days.”

“I can’t believe I did that to her… we didn’t even know what it was! I could’ve killed her! I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m such a _shitty_ mage, but I was so scared –“

“Lena.” Angela’s voice was gentle and warm, like she was used to consoling people. “You saved her from a deadly and subtle demonic attack. She’ll be fine.”

“I’ll be fine after I kill the sorcerer that made that fragment,” Fareeha muttered, eyes still closed. She did not want to wake up. She was laying in her bed, with no strange fever, surrounded by the kind of warmth only a magical healer could produce. She had been healed before, but Angela’s magic felt… intense, _present_ in a way that a human healer could not achieve. “That fucking hurt.”

“I’m really sorry –“ Lena began, but Fareeha only waved her off and struggled to a sitting position, blinking in the afternoon light coming from her window. Lena was kneeling on one side of her bed, and Angela on the other. Raptora sat on their perch in the corner, watching her with glittering blue eyes. Some part of her smugly noted that Angela was still holding her hand.

“Angela’s right. You saved me,” she said simply.

Lena hesitated, the last of her fear draining from her face, then grinned widely. “Just don’t ever scare me like that again, okay?” She got up and tucked her mage staff back into its pocket dimension. “I’ll get you some water.”

As Lena closed the door behind her, Fareeha turned to Angela. “You saved me too. Thanks for taking the risk for me,” she said. Part of her was very flustered to be alone with Angela, just like earlier that morning. But the other part of her was just grateful to be alive, and grateful to have a friend that was willing to risk their powers for her.

“It was you who took all the risk,” Angela retorted, smiling. “I’m happy to help.” Her smile became a bit more distant. “I was a healer … before all this happened. It was my truest calling. I’m glad that even though I am Fallen, I can still heal.”

“You’re very good at it,” Fareeha said truthfully. “My ankle doesn’t even hurt anymore.” She looked down at her hand, held tightly in both of Angela’s. Her fair skin, touched with pale little freckles, looked perfect next to Fareeha’s warm brown tones. Angela looked down too, and Fareeha felt her fingers twitch. “I –“

“I’m sorry!” Angela exclaimed hastily, withdrawing her hands and putting them in her lap, wrapped tightly together. “I needed to touch you to do the healing. Sorry about that.” Her blue eyes skittered away, and she turned so half her face was hidden by a curtain of blonde hair.

“It’s okay –“ Fareeha began, just as Lena re-entered the room with water. “You’re fine,” she finished weakly, not knowing how to say that it was _perfectly_ alright with her. Lena hummed brightly, back to her usual cheer, while forcing way too much water into her reluctant patient, ordering her to swallow some Advil, and “ _rest,_ damn you”.

_Fareeha, you can rest your body and perhaps work on your midterm homework,_ Raptora pointed out, the picture of innocence. Lena laughed over Fareeha’s loud groan but ushered Angela out, taking Raptora with her.

Left on her own, she sighed loudly and pulled out her phone, tapping out a message to Jesse to watch out for a corruption sorcerer tied to Talon. Her duty fulfilled, she scrolled mindlessly through clickbait articles until her exhaustion caught up with her once more. She fell into deep sleep, dreaming of light brown freckles and too-bright blue eyes and golden feathers shining in a cloudless sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all of fareeha's friends are gay sorry i don't make the rules


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angela and Fareeha have a heart to heart. The gang throws a rager. Jesse just wants a bf.

Three days later, Fareeha slouched in an uncomfortably small chair in the university registrar’s office, trying to stifle a yawn. “Tell me how you managed to talk me into this again?” she grumbled. Since her recovery from the sorcery placed upon her, she had been struggling to catch up on sleep. It was only two days into the school week and she was already yearning for the weekend.

Angela sat primly beside her, looking very nervous. “Lena said it was a good idea if I ‘blended in’ with the humans. She said this was the best option.”

“But registering for classes? You don’t even have a high school diploma!”

“I’m sure I’ll figure it out. I know a fair amount about human history and science. Angel technology is very similar, though quite a bit more advanced.” Fareeha stared at her, then sighed and slouched back down in her seat.

“I guess I can’t change your mind. It is actually a pretty good idea, but I don’t know how we’re going to convince them that you’re an actual college student.” Angela smiled at her, winking in such a ridiculous way that Fareeha couldn’t help laughing. Lena’s antics were rubbing off on both of them.

“I have an idea. Another angel ability that I may have figured out. You’ll see!” Angela jumped up as the clerk called her up in a bored voice. Fareeha followed her to the counter, trying not to appear visibly doubtful of this plan.

“What’s your name?” the clerk asked, looking at his computer screen.

“Angela Ziegler.” Fareeha looked questioningly at Angela, but she was waved off.

“Student ID number?”

“I don’t have one. I’d like to register for classes for the first time,” Angela said, voice smooth. All of her prior nervousness seemed to be gone. Her hair was down, hanging in soft waves that framed her cheeks charmingly. They had gone out to get her some clothes that actually fit a few days ago, so she looked the picture of a pretty college student, guileless and innocent.

“It’s the middle of the term,” the clerk said in confusion. “I’m sorry, but you’ve missed your opportunity to apply to the college, much less register for classes –“

Angela smiled at him, and Fareeha swore she saw soft light beginning to emanate from her friend in waves. “I see you don’t understand. That’s okay. I would like to register for classes, please.” Her words were soft, almost murmured, and Fareeha sensed power laced in every syllable. She took a step back from the counter, unwilling to be ensnared in the spell, or whatever it was.

The clerk’s jaw hung open for a moment, then he smiled vacantly at Angela. “Of course. I’ll take care of everything. Which classes would you like to register for?”

“The same classes as my friend Fareeha here, please.” Angela hooked an arm around Fareeha’s elbow and tugged her to the counter, ignoring her surprised noise.

“Can I see your student ID, ma’am?” the clerk asked pleasantly. Fareeha wordlessly handed over her ID, dumbfounded by the effect that Angela had over this man. She’d never seen anything like it, though spirits and magic users could sometimes have a similar effect on humans. Angela’s spell was so subtle that Fareeha could barely sense it in the air.

After having Angela fill out some paperwork and taking her picture for a new student ID, they were ushered out of the registrar’s office with many pleasant well-wishes and thank yous. Fareeha stood in the hallway for a second, staring at Angela with new eyes. She had dropped the spell as soon as they had left, and she looked a little winded from the effort. Brushing her pale hair out of her face, she turned to Fareeha with shining eyes. “How did I do?”

“That was pretty amazing,” Fareeha said, letting her eyebrows climb up her face. “Are all angels able to do that?”

Angela nodded. “It’s how most of us move through the human world to hunt demons. It’s easiest to put on a disguise, or a glamour, to fool humans into thinking that we are one of them. Our magic allows us to influence their will somewhat, but it requires extra effort. We can’t blend in perfectly, so sometimes humans need a … nudge in the right direction.”

“Have you ever used that on me?” Fareeha asked, quietly. She stopped in her tracks in the hallway, hands clenching. She thought back to when she first met Angela, in that alleyway, and how beautiful and innocent she had seemed. She thought about their first couple of days together, and how she had struggled to keep herself from getting flustered by Angela’s mere presence. “Because if you have, and if you’re … _influencing_ me in some way, then –“

“I would never have done that.” Angela interrupted, her eyes wide with surprise. “Your Eye, it blocks most enchantments, especially the ones that affect your perception. You see so _clearly,_ Fareeha, more so than most humans, that I never would have taken that away from you, even if I had been able to.” She looked away, down at her clasped hands. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it to that man. You’ve done so much for me, and taught me so much about humans. It was wrong of me to take advantage of a person like that.”

“Wait,” Fareeha said, putting a hand over Angela’s fingers, clasped tightly together. She suddenly felt extremely foolish for questioning her like this. “You’re my friend, Angela. Of course you haven’t used that power on me. I’m sorry for insinuating it. We hunters, we are cautious around all supernatural beings. I don’t want you to think that I don’t trust you.”

“But why _would_ you trust me?” Angela burst out, her eyes suddenly shining bright with tears. Alarmed, Fareeha let go of her, and Angela turned away, towards the wall. “I don’t understand you humans at all,” Angela muttered. “You trust and give so easily. It makes no sense. You don’t know me, you don’t know what angels are capable of. I’m Fallen.”

“I told you already, it’s my job to help,” Fareeha replied gently. “You’re a person in trouble, and I would help anybody in that position.” Even though Angela was different, _worlds_ different than any normal person that Fareeha helped. She didn’t say that. “Although yes, I don’t know you that well, you’ve proven yourself to be a person I can trust, Angela. I hope we can continue being friends.”

Angela finally turned back to her, smiling weakly. “Thank you. That’s what I should say, right?”

Fareeha smiled back. “Yeah. Now let’s get out of this hallway. We have to go to class.”

\---

Angela proved herself to be an excellent student. She was very excited that Fareeha was taking mostly anthropology and history classes, and eager to do the long, boring readings that Fareeha hated so much. They fell easily into a routine together, catching rides with Lena to class and doing homework together in the evenings. Before Fareeha knew it, most of the week had gone by smoothly.

On Friday, the three of them got together for lunch, and she led Angela and Lena to a corner of campus that Angela had never been to before. Deep in the liberal arts building, they finally entered the run-down old radio booth. Stacks of records and CDs towered all the way to the ceiling, old speakers and amps took up another corner of the room, and in the center of it all was the one man show of Lúcio Correia Dos Santos.

Lúcio was an old friend from high school, who Fareeha had met in her early explorations of the Undercity. He was fairly short and slender, and always wore tank tops that exposed his tattoo of a frog on his shoulder. He had had an accident in high school that had given him a permanent limp, but he almost always wore his skates, and Fareeha had never met anyone that could move as fluidly as he did on wheels. He singlehandedly kept the college radio station alive, and frequently did house shows and small gigs around the Undercity. His expertise in sound and music-based magic made him an instant hit amongst humans and magic users alike.  

“Fareeha!” Lúcio exclaimed in cheerful tenor. Fareeha laughed as she was immediately engulfed in a hug, Lúcio’s locks (tied back into a jaunty, bouncy ponytail) whacking her in the face. “I haven’t seen you all week, girl! What have you been doing?” He pulled back from their hug and looked her up and down with a quizzical expression. “Wait, you’re not beat up, are you?” He patted her down with swift hands, only subsiding when Fareeha gently pushed him off. “Man, it’s sad that I always expect you to be beat up when I see you, Fareeha!”

“I promise I’m not beat up,” Fareeha assured him, laughing when he cried “Lena!” and subjected her friend to the same treatment. “It’s good to see you, Lúcio. Sorry I missed your show last week.”

“It’s alright, though it was a pretty good show,” Lúcio replied, smirking. He leaned back against the DJ console, perfectly at ease and in his element. Bouncy EDM music played softly in the background, and by the looks of his laptop and mixing station, he was working on his newest album. His friendly gaze settled immediately on Angela. “You gotta introduce me to your new friend, Fareeha.” His eyes sharpened, and began to glow a little bit. The air changed and thrummed around them, humming with Lúcio’s magic. “There’s something special about you,” he spoke directly to Angela. “You’re… I can’t place it.” His eyes narrowed, and the energy in the room suddenly ramped up, until Fareeha hastily stepped forward.

“This is my new friend and roommate, Angela,” Fareeha said. “She’s – she’s a healer, but I can’t tell you much more than that.” Lena giggled nervously, and Fareeha sighed as Lúcio’s magic faded to the background, blending back into his music. He looked between Fareeha and Angela for a moment, then grinned.

“That was rude of me, sorry!” Lúcio exclaimed, reaching forward to shake Angela’s hand vigorously.

“It’s alright,” Angela replied, completely nonplussed.

“We’re meeting with Jesse and maybe the Shimadas this weekend,” Fareeha said as they all settled down in the few available chairs in the booth. “There’s something new and dangerous brewing in the Undercity, and we need a plan of action. I’ll tell you everything then.”

“You know I’m always willing to help, Fareeha,” Lúcio replied warmly. “In fact, I’ve got some new tracks put together that I’ve been waiting to test on a crowd.”

“Great, I’m looking forward to it,” Fareeha said, grinning. She loved his music. “Usual place in the Undercity?”

“Yesss!” Lúcio said, and they fist bumped. “Any particular reason why you need to have a party, though? Not that I’ll ever shy away from throwing a banger.”

Lena laughed. “Fareeha owes Jesse a favor,” she said as Fareeha groaned in mock-frustration. “He’s trying to get her to set him up with Hanzo Shimada, so she’s throwing a party in exchange for some information from the Undercity.”

Lúcio whistled appreciatively. “I didn’t know that Jesse was after Hanzo! Bold move, bold move. I can _personally_ attest to the quality of ‘Dragon Experience,’ though, so I don’t blame him.” He winked lasciviously as they all laughed and groaned.

“So you _are_ with Genji?” Lena gasped. “How is it? I can’t wait to see you together!”

Lúcio shrugged effortlessly. “We matched on Tinder, and kind of just hit it off. He loves my music, and I love that cursed-magical-sword-ninja thing he has going on, and we work really well together.” He blushed as Fareeha and Lena teased him, but Fareeha noted that he actually seemed really happy, and she couldn’t help but smile.

“If I may ask,” Angela said, eyes roaming curiously around the room, “What do you do here? I’ve never heard of magic that melds with sound before. How does it work?” Lúcio’s face lit up, and Fareeha watched indulgently as he tugged Angela out of her chair and led her over to the turntables and his laptop, chattering about healing sounds and supernatural audio frequencies, while she listened intently.

Lena sidled up next to her as she watched them, and grinned with that mischievous expression that always made Fareeha want to run for the hills. “I think I know the other reason why you’re throwing a party, Fareeha,” she said.

“It’s _not_ whatever you’re thinking!” Fareeha sputtered, immediately flushed. “This is to help Jesse, and we need a cover in case demons show up, and it’s to celebrate midterms being over –“

“It’d be nice to see Angela dance, am I right?” Lena interrupted, waggling her eyebrows and gleefully giggling at Fareeha’s stammering. Before she could form a coherent thought around the sudden, technicolor vision of Angela dressed for a party, dancing energetically to Lúcio’s music, Angela herself appeared at her elbow. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

“You have to see this, Lena and Fareeha! Healing magic that works through sound and air vibrations, it’s amazing!” Fareeha let herself be dragged off, refusing to look at Lena’s smug expression.

\----

On Saturday morning, Fareeha took Lena’s car to buy party supplies. They were inviting most of their friends as well as Jesse’s friends from _The Wolf Bar._ Plus, Lúcio’s shows always attracted a crowd.

“We’re not having the party at the house, right?” Angela asked, surveying the bags full of alcohol, cups, and party snacks that Fareeha had gathered.

“No, there’s a special venue in the Undercity that Lúcio uses for his shows,” Fareeha explained. “You’ll see.” She couldn’t help but feel a thrill of excitement, despite the fact that the party was basically a cover for them to exchange information with their allies. She never got the chance to go out much due to her job and busy school life, so she always relished the chance to be a normal college student. The fact that most of the attendees were going to be fellow hunters, mages, werewolves, and spirits was beside the point.

They loaded the supplies into Lena’s Civic and began to drive away from campus, toward the city center. “The entrances to the Undercity are hidden, and normal humans can’t see past the enchantments protecting them,” Fareeha said. “Our venue is on the outskirts of the underground portion, the only place really accessible by car.” She turned off the highway onto a side-street partially hidden by trees. Buildings loomed out of overgrown hedges and lawns, most looking abandoned. Fareeha knew that they were far from it. This part of town, while condemned by the city government, was a haven for the supernatural elements of Hudson City to dwell.

They wound through the streets until the road ended abruptly in a dead end, facing a large blank wall. Fareeha stopped the car, and Angela looked on curiously as she got out and squatted in the dusty gravel in front of the wall. She pulled out a can of spray paint from her back pocket, and covered her nose with the sleeve of her jacket while she sprayed a simple sigil onto the wall. As soon as she closed the outer circle and took a step back, the sigil glowed blue, and the wall dissolved before their eyes. Where once was a blank concrete wall now yawned a wide tunnel into darkness. She got back in the car and grinned at Angela’s open-mouthed astonishment. “That sigil…” Angela breathed as they began pulling into the dark tunnel, “That sigil was created by an angel. A very old ward of protection against prying eyes.”

Fareeha blinked. She had learned the sigil from her mother, when she was a child. Everyone used that sigil to enter and exit the Undercity. “Really? How old do you think it is?”

“Older than the city. Centuries, maybe.” Digesting this, Fareeha drove on in silence, the car’s headlights illuminating very little of the path in front of them. They rounded a corner in the dark tunnel, then began to descend down a steep grade, until they pulled out again onto flat concrete. The tunnel expanded around them, forming a shallow dome of a chamber. On one side, the floor dropped sharply away into darkness. They got out of the car, and Angela leaned cautiously over the edge, staring into the gloom. “What is down there –“ she said, and yelped as a loud grumbling shook the tunnel and light filled the cavern, then winked out immediately.

Angela stumbled backwards and collided with Fareeha’s chest. Fareeha caught her out of instinct, then abruptly realized that her arms were wrapped around Angela’s chest, and let go of her immediately. “That,” Fareeha huffed, “was the subway. We’re underground, but the subway systems are a little deeper. Most of the Undercity was built between the surface and the subway. This place was a planned subway platform, but the city abandoned the project, so the Undercity folks built a passage here.” Angela nodded, and they stared at each other for a long, drawn out moment before Fareeha awkwardly cleared her throat. “Anyway… Let’s start setting up.”

They were trying to figure out where to put the fold-out tables when they heard footsteps and the shine of flashlights in the passageway on the far end of the chamber. “You’re here early!” Lena exclaimed as she jogged bouncily into the room, Raptora situated comfortably on her shoulder. Lúcio and Jesse followed closely behind. Lúcio was decked out in his full DJ outfit, wearing glow-in-the-dark skates and neon beads that he had threaded into his locks. McCree wore what he always wore, but had thrown on an apron, as he would be bartending for most of the night.

Lena skidded to a stop in the center of the room, and gazed quizzically at the lights in the ceiling, burnt out long ago. “I can definitely do something about the lighting in here,” she said, and threw up her hands. Magic whispered through the air, and they all watched as Lena rewound the timeline of the lights, restoring them to new condition in seconds. At Lúcio’s suggestion, she dimmed them slightly, creating a muted atmosphere perfect for dancing.

Fareeha and Angela helped Jesse set up the open bar, pulling out folding chairs and tables from the trunk of Lena’s car to provide seating. Lúcio set up his turntables and sound system on the opposite side of the room. “The acoustics in here are always so good,” he sighed happily as he began his sound checks.

“Who did you invite?” Fareeha asked Jesse as she began stacking up plastic cups along the tables. Jesse shrugged from his place behind the bar, deftly mixing together drinks with one hand.

“The usual crowd. Most of the bartenders from _The Wolf Bar_ will be there, and some of my customers.” He finished pouring the punch into a bowl with a flourish, then fixed Fareeha with a focused stare. “What really matters is who _you_ invited to the party. Did you keep up your end of the bargain, Amari?”

“Stop sounding like an old-timey sheriff, it’s not nearly as endearing as you think it is,” Fareeha retorted fondly, then laughed as Jesse growled. “Yes, of course I invited Hanzo. His brother’s coming to see Lúcio play anyway, so it’s all sorted out.”

Jesse sighed in visible relief, then steeled his shoulders in determination. “Mark my words, Fareeha. I’m going to make him a drink so perfect that he’ll have no choice but to hear me out. This will be a night of new beginnings! This party will change everything!”

Fareeha rolled her eyes at his melodramatics, but her gaze settled unintentionally on Angela, who was across the room chatting amicably with Lena. “Yeah,” she said absently, watching as she tucked a lock of blond hair behind her ear. “New beginnings, huh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this fic is apparently not dead. i know, i'm surprised too! at this rate i'm going to finish by the time i turn 30, but it's ok, i'm devoted to completing this!! 
> 
> my main priority right now is completing it, so the stuff that i want to edit and polish will have to come later. i want to get as much done as i can!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A meeting of minds. The Shimada brothers finally appear. Fareeha makes some bad decisions. 
> 
> (TW for alcohol use and general drunkenness in this chapter.)

“What a great turnout. Let me hear some _nooooooise_!” Lúcio called joyfully as the crowd cheered. The beat dropped with a ponderous _thud,_ Lúcio’s subwoofers shaking the floor. He kicked up a frenetic beat that had people furiously jumping and gyrating to keep up. Lena’s lights flashed and crackled with the music, controlled mysteriously by Lúcio’s magic. Fareeha could feel the very air being saturated with his powers, everything attaining a green halo of excitement and heart-pounding joy. She smiled into her cup.

Over a hundred people had shown up to their party. The abandoned subway station was a popular place to have a party in the Undercity, but even Jesse hadn’t expected so many people. From her spot by the bar, Fareeha could see werewolves, mages like Lena and Lúcio, a couple of spirits that probably haunted the subway routes below, and even some regular humans like herself. Jesse was a virtuoso at the bar, expertly controlling the shakers, glasses, and orders that came his way. He was smiling in that rogueishly charming way that always caught the attention of boys everywhere. Why he wanted the attentions of Hanzo Shimada when he could have anyone he wanted escaped Fareeha, but it was his life. She mentally shrugged it off.

“Fareeha!” She was startled out of her thoughts by Angela as she slumped in the chair next to her, panting. Her hair was a little mussed, and her cheeks glowed from the exertion of dancing. Despite herself, Fareeha felt her heart begin to thump. “I’m having a lot of fun,” she exclaimed, accepting Fareeha’s offer of a cup of water. She seemed surprised by the admission, then laughed breathlessly. “I think this is the first party I’ve ever been to, and I’ve lived for so much longer than the average human.”

“What, angels don’t throw parties?” Fareeha teased. “It seems like an awfully boring immortal existence without parties.”

“Oh, we throw parties like you wouldn’t believe!” Angela retorted, eyes glinting. “Angelic parties would probably kill a normal human if they tried to participate. I just never went to any. I was too devoted to my work as a healer.” She smiled distantly. “All of that feels so unreal now.”

Worried, Fareeha opened her mouth – to say something, though she had no idea what – but was interrupted by Lena appearing at her other elbow. “Fareeha!” she yelled, timing it perfectly with a lull in the music so that Fareeha felt her ears ringing at the volume. She already looked a little tipsy, judging by the half-empty cup in her hands and the bright flush of her ears. “Jesse says that he’s ready to have our strategy meeting whenever – he’s having one of his bartenders fill in for him.” Fareeha nodded and got ready to get up, but Lena immediately leaned all of her slight weight on her shoulders and they wobbled, nearly falling. “I wasn’t done!” her friend whined.

“Lena, I can’t believe you’re already drunk,” Fareeha sighed. “You are _such_ a lightweight.”

“I saw…” Lena’s eyes widened comically, “the _prettiest_ girl on the dancefloor!” Fareeha got her upright and held her by the shoulders while she waxed rhapsodic about her newfound crush. “We talked a bit, and, and, I think her name is Emily, and I want her number but I am _so bad at talking to girls Fareeha.”_ Lena turned her puppydog eyes on her full force, and Fareeha groaned. “Can you please help me!”

“I don’t know if you should be trying to woo girls if you’re already this drunk,” Fareeha replied. Angela came around Lena’s other side, eyes wide with concern.

“Is she going to be alright?”

“Yes, she always goes a little hard at parties, and Jesse never stops her like he should,” Fareeha said fondly as they began making their way around the edge of the room. The volume of the music suddenly swelled, and it became too loud to speak as they nudged their way through the throng. At the end of the room, behind the DJ station, were a set of bathrooms, already full of people loitering and chatting. Next to the bathrooms was a door to a small conference room, presumably where subway employees would take their breaks before the platform was abandoned. As soon as Fareeha closed the door, the hectic beat of the music faded to the background. She blinked under the bright fluorescents, feeling her head clear instantly. “Your music really is potent,” she said to Lúcio, who was already lounging in a chair in the center of the room and chatting with Raptora.

“Thank you!” he replied, beaming. He still had his headphones draped around his neck, and a mic taped to his cheek. “I’ve had such a wonderful crowd tonight. I’m so excited to keep showing everyone my new music!”

Lena collapsed into a chair beside him, rubbing her eyes. She dislodged Raptora, who fluttered over to land on Fareeha’s shoulder. “I barely drank anything, and I feel like I just did three shots,” she grumbled. “I don’t know if your magic mixes well with alcohol, dude.” She seemed much more lucid than before.

While Lúcio talked about his theories about the effect of music on the intoxicated mind, Jesse nudged open the door with his foot, holding drinks for everyone on a tray. Fareeha helped pass them out, and nodded encouragingly at Angela when she hesitated to take one. Angela accepted the cup of beer and slowly took a sip, instantly recoiling.

“That’s disgusting!” she gasped, with such a betrayed look on her face that everyone laughed. Lena assured her that she didn’t have to drink any of it. Fareeha took the drink back from her and gave her a simple glass of water, smiling apologetically.

A polite knock came from the door, and Jesse leapt up to answer it. “Finally, everyone’s together,” he said, grinning.

On the other side of the door stood two young men, strikingly similar in their features. Hanzo Shimada had long black hair that he tied back into a strict bun, though his sideburns were untamed and wild around his sharp cheekbones. He was dressed smartly in stylish black sweatpants and a sleekly cut jacket, in sharp contrast to the traditional Japanese clothing Fareeha was so used to seeing him in. His brother Genji came in slightly behind, wearing shorts and a bright orange button-up shirt that was open at the chest, revealing the beginnings of the complex green dragon tattoo on his collarbone. He had wild, upswept hair dyed an eye-wateringly bright green, and a ravishing smile. The Shimada brothers were famously handsome, famously gay, and famously successful, running the most popular weapons shop in the Undercity.

“Lúcio!” Genji immediately exclaimed, his eyes lighting up as he shrugged his way into the room. He hugged his boyfriend energetically, eliciting a surprised grunt from Lúcio. “What an awesome show. I have to hear your new album again!”

“Yep, thank you, you’re suffocating me,” Lúcio gasped, and Genji let go of him with a barking laugh. Lena immediately pounced, and they shared an inscrutable secret handshake that was too fast for Fareeha to see.

“Nice of you to come, Hanzo,” Jesse said to the eldest brother, eyes wide and welcoming.

“I owe Fareeha a favor, as always,” Hanzo replied in clipped tones, and Fareeha looked on in pity as Hanzo swept by Jesse without a second glance. He turned his gaze to Fareeha. “Have you received my newest products?”

“Yes, I have,” Fareeha said as they shook hands. “Thanks a lot. Haven’t gotten the chance to try them out yet, but I’m sure they’ll work just fine.”

“And the sword?” He looked meaningfully at the gilded sword strapped across her back.

Fareeha smiled. “It’s great. I never thought I’d prefer cutting demons over shooting them, but you’ve really outdone yourself this time.”

Hanzo bowed his head, and for the first time a smile flickered to his lips. “It’s my pleasure.”

Now that everyone was gathered, Fareeha stood up and cleared her throat. Her friends all turned to look at her, but she only had eyes for Angela. Her face was partially hidden behind a curtain of gold hair, but she nodded once, giving Fareeha permission to tell them everything. “As you all know,” she began, “With your help I exterminated most of the demons in Hudson City five years ago. While I knew that they would someday come back, and they have, we potentially have a much bigger problem on our hands.” She took a deep breath, and launched into her account of what had happened last week with Reaper and Angela, sparing no details. She talked for a while, then sat down and let Angela say her piece.

“I know that this must be difficult to believe,” Angela said as everyone stared at her. “But I can prove it.” She stood up, and everyone gasped as those metallic golden feathers unfurled from her back once more, illuminating the room in soft yellow light. Fareeha had seen it before, but she was still astounded by the pure, raw power she felt coming from her friend, as well as the warmth she remembered from when Angela had healed her. Visions danced at the edge of her sight, of winged eyes and rays of light inside immense, metallic cathedrals. As Angela’s wings faded once more, Fareeha had to blink those intoxicating images away, leaving a burning impression of them on the edges of her vision. She gazed at her friends, whose faces were captivated with wonder, amazement, and even fear.

“Demons… Demons working together, and hunting an angel.” Lúcio was the first to speak, in hushed tones. “If you hadn’t just shown me that… I would never have believed you.”

_It’s something that even Ana would have found hard to believe,_ Raptora said gravely.

“This could spell disaster for the Undercity,” Hanzo said, tense. “If demons are on the move without our knowledge, and they’ve formed an organized force under this Reaper, then they’re more powerful than they were five years ago. We can’t just hunt them down one by one anymore.”

“And they’re going after old colleagues of Ana Amari,” Jesse added, shooting a sympathetic look at Fareeha. “We don’t know what they want with these old hunters, or even why Reaper is after Angela at all. We need more intel.”

“This is a threat that the Undercity can’t ignore,” Genji said, face full of determination. “My brother and I are with you, Fareeha. We’ll make sure the other hunters that come to our shop know about Reaper and Talon.” His mouth settled into old lines full of pain. Hanzo glanced at him sharply, his face pinched. “We won’t lose unnecessary lives this time around,” was all he said before subsiding.

“I’m with you too,” Lúcio said. He turned to Angela, smiling gently. “I’m sorry for doubting you. Together, we’ll help as much as we can, yeah?”

“Yes. Thank you,” Angela replied, smiling in return. Her eyes were shining with tears, but she seemed happier than Fareeha had ever seen her. “I can’t express my gratitude to you all.”

“Don’t sweat it, sweetheart,” Jesse said to her, then turned back to Fareeha. “I have the results of my research into the list you gave me,” he said, pulling a small notepad out from his back pocket. He handed it to Fareeha, and she took out her phone and took a picture of the list of addresses scrawled in Jesse’s messy handwriting. Raptora leaned in and read over her shoulder, their blue eyes glittering with interest. “Three of the seven hunters on that list have moved out of Hudson City, one has died of natural causes – though I’ll have to look into if that’s actually true – and there are two more hunters besides from Reinhardt that are still living in Hudson City.”

“Thanks a lot, Jesse,” Fareeha said, handing the notepad back. Jesse nodded at her. Fareeha looked around at all of her friends, mouth set in a determined line. “We’re going to start visiting these hunters. It’s very likely that like Reinhardt, they have had contact with Talon in the last two months.”

“The next step would be to try to track down Talon themselves,” Lúcio said thoughtfully. “They’re demons, so it is very possible that they are hopping from body to body.”

“That leaves residue though, and witnesses,” Hanzo pointed out. “It’s more likely that they have inhabited the same bodies, or are trying to find people who would be easy to disappear. It would be a good idea to check for missing persons cases, or reports of missing entities from the Undercity.”

“That’s a good idea,” Jesse hummed, scribbling in his notepad. “Between my contacts and yours, Hanzo, we can hopefully track those people down.” Hanzo gave him an appraising look, then nodded silently. Jesse beamed but quickly hid it in a crooked smile and a wink. Fareeha rolled her eyes.

_Many demons that flock together in one location would most likely attract attention from magic users,_ Raptora said. _If they are in the Undercity, someone would have noticed. They must be conducting things aboveground, blending with the humans._ Fareeha tapped her chin in thought, trying to piece everything together in her mind.

“We don’t have enough evidence to find them right now,” she finally said. “We need to capture one of them, interrogate it if possible. These demons will die to protect Talon’s anonymity, but at least one of them should talk.” The others nodded at her suggestion, and they began to draw together plans. Angela and Lúcio offered their skill as healers, Hanzo and Jesse volunteered themselves for investigating missing persons cases, and Lena and Genji agreed to do legwork around the Undercity seeking new information. “I need to investigate the first of these hunters” – Fareeha checked her phone, stumbling a bit over the name – “Tekhartha Zenyatta.”

_Zenyatta is a very old contact indeed,_ Raptora said, clacking their beak. _Last I heard, before Ana disappeared Zenyatta had quit hunting and taken the cloth._

“I’ll go with you,” Jesse said. “The full moon is in the next three days, so I’ll be at full power.”

“I’ll go as well,” Lena said. “You might need someone who can immobilize a demon.” Fareeha nodded in thanks at both of them.

She turned back to Angela. “I hate to keep dragging you into combat situations, but it’s not safe for you to stay at our house by yourself.”

“Don’t worry, she can stay at my place!” Lúcio put in. “It’s completely warded, and should be safe from corrupting influences.”

“Thank you,” Angela replied, smiling hesitantly at him.

“Then it’s decided,” Fareeha said, clapping her hands together. “Please contact me if any new information comes up, and we will meet together again.” She paused, then added, “None of you had to do this with me. I’m really happy to call you all my friends.”

\---

Plans made, they all filed back out into the party. Barely thirty minutes had passed since the beginning of the meeting, but Fareeha was already tired enough to call it in. She settled against the bar as Jesse relieved his substitute, and immediately ordered a drink. Lúcio resumed his post at the turntables, much to the shouted happiness of the crowd. Lena and Genji dragged Angela back out onto the dancefloor, and Hanzo disappeared immediately into the crowd. Raptora nuzzled Fareeha’s cheek, and bid her goodnight, before swooping out of the passageway – to the surprise of many unsuspecting partygoers.

Jesse gazed mournfully into the throng of people in the center of the room. “Do you think that went well?” he asked.

“Yeah, everyone worked together really well and I really think we can beat this thing if we continue to coordinate our efforts –“ Fareeha began.

“No, I mean with Hanzo!”

Fareeha rubbed the spot between her eyebrows. “Yes, I think it went well. Quit worrying so much, a guy like Hanzo probably prefers to take it slow.”

Jesse sighed dramatically and slid Fareeha’s drink across the counter. “You’re probably right. We’re both adults, kinda. I’ll figure it out.” Fareeha expected him to keep complaining about his love life as she took a sip of her cider, but he suddenly fell silent. She looked up from her drink, curious, to see him staring with wide eyes across the room. Before she could turn around to follow his gaze, he yanked her head back around to face him.

“Ow, what was that for?” she complained, and he hushed her frantically.

“Don’t talk, don’t turn around, it’s _her!_ ” he hissed.

“Who?” Fareeha asked, but her blood was already running cold.

“Hello, Fareeha.”

Slowly, achingly slowly, Fareeha turned around in her seat. “Satya. Hello.”

The woman in front of her was tall and curvaceous, looking resplendent in a blue blouse and slim black jeans. A straight, aristocratic nose adorned with a single golden piercing defined her face, and her long brown hair was as perfect as ever. She looked at Fareeha with those usual warm brown eyes, expertly lined with black eyeliner. Her bindi was red today, some distant part of Fareeha’s brain noted. She looked as perfect and as beautiful as the last time they had seen each other. She pushed that memory away with a vengeance.

“Long time no see, Fareeha,” Satya said, sliding smoothly into the chair next to her. “Ah, Jesse!” she smiled. Jesse smiled back, attempting to bring the relaxed atmosphere back.

“Satya! What’ll you be having today?” He couldn’t keep his voice from sounding a little strained.

She ordered a glass of wine, before turning her full attention back to Fareeha. Over her shoulder, Jesse gave her a sympathetic grimace. Fareeha felt her mouth twitching but tried to keep her expression neutral. She had no idea if she succeeded or not.

“Is your business going well?” Fareeha asked, trying desperately to break the chilly silence that ensued. She buried her face in her drink, unwilling to look Satya in the eye.

Her response was immediate. “No need to beat around the bush, Fareeha,” she said, voice gentle but firm. “These past four months have gone as well for me as you would expect. I really hope there aren’t still hard feelings between us?” Her voice lilted upwards at the end of the sentence, as if asking a question. “I think that we’ve both moved on enough that we can still be friends, right?”

Fareeha felt the flimsy plastic cup of cider beginning to bend under her grip, but she fought to keep her voice even. Her pulse rushed in her ears, and she suddenly felt a hotness in her throat and a wetness between her lashes that she tried desperately to ignore. “I don’t know, Satya. Are there still hard feelings between us? Surely not, since you apparently happen to know every emotion I’m feeling at any given moment.” She didn’t look up to see her reaction. She didn’t want to show her face at all. “I’m so happy you’ve moved on. I really am.”

Jesse had disappeared long ago, and Fareeha was glad that he had given them their privacy. Satya shifted in the seat beside her and she felt rather than saw her reach out to touch her shoulder. In an instant Fareeha was on her feet, setting the cup down rather more forcefully than she had intended and accidentally spilling a bit of cider on the counter. She caught one glimpse at Satya’s stricken face before she turned and plunged into the dancing throng. “Fareeha!” Satya called out behind her, but she didn’t look back.

Half an hour later, she stumbled off the dancefloor and settled back at the bar. Jesse had returned, and Satya was nowhere to be seen. Fareeha wondered if she had left the party entirely, but squashed the thought before she made a fool of herself by looking for her. Jesse silently placed another cider in front of her, but she waved it off. “Can you give me something a little stronger, please?” Fareeha muttered, still slightly breathless from aggressively dancing with some cute werewolf girls in the crowd. Jesse frowned at her, but obliged.

She drank silently at the bar until she could feel a pleasant buzz forming between her ears, and everything looked blurry and indistinct. “Maybe you should get back to the dancefloor,” Jesse suggested, voice unexpectedly timid. “I can see Angela and Lena dancing just over there. They look like they’re having fun.”

Suddenly, dancing and seeing Angela dance seemed like the best idea. “I’ll be back,” she said blurrily to him, and got up. She was steadier than she thought she would be, so she walked with confidence through the crowd until she reached where Lena and Angela were dancing, up close to the front of the room. Here, the bass from Lúcio’s music was strong enough to rattle her ribcage, but she welcomed the distraction from her thoughts. Lena and Angela grinned at her in greeting, and she found herself smiling back.

They danced with wild abandon as the music got more and more intense, and the crowd was packed so tightly around them that Fareeha found herself brushing against Angela more than once. A slight touch to her arm here, a brush against her thigh there. The tiny touches were driving her further and further away from the land of logical decisions.

As the songs switched, Fareeha found herself gravitating closer and closer, the two of them dancing in the same orbit like twin stars. Their bodies gleamed with sweat and heaved from exertion, and they suddenly found themselves pressed directly against the DJ stage, less than a foot away from Lúcio’s glowing skates.

Fareeha felt his music with every bone in her body, and the magic laced through each note only drove her higher and higher, until everything was a shifting chaos of colors and shapes around her. She closed her eyes, lost in it, swaying.

Just as the synth beat finally reached a clashing crescendo around her, a burly werewolf man bumped roughly into her body. She could barely hear his muttered apology as she felt her body pitch in slow motion, every sense alive as their orbit collapsed and she hurtled closer and closer to Angela.

She opened her eyes and they were pressed together, chest to chest, Angela’s surprised eyes melting into something hotter, darker. Fareeha’s arms came around her, pinning her against the vibrating solidity of the stage and steadying them both. It was all she could do to look into those divine blue eyes, to see the colors playing over the metallic strands of blond hair that fell over her face. One part of her catalogued the tiny constellation of freckles, barely visible, splashed across her nose. Synchronized, as one, their eyes traveled downward, and Fareeha looked at her lips like she had been trying to avoid doing for the past week. They were slightly parted, pink and shiny, revealing even white teeth, just the hint of tongue, and they were now close enough for their breaths to mingle, only an inch apart that felt suddenly like a thousand miles –

The music crashed around them and shattered into so many glittering shards, and their lips met with aching slowness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm finally getting to some of the scenes i had in my head when i was first planning this story out! very exciting! 
> 
> also i promise that satya is not a jerk. i actually love symmpharah as a ship and have always wanted to write a fic about them. in this AU they had a bad breakup, which hurt both of them and made them say some very unkind things to each other that they now regret. their relationship problems are really angsty but what is a college AU without some intense lesbian drama? have you MET college age lesbians??


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An important conversation, and a battle.

The kiss was relatively chaste as kisses went, but Fareeha could feel her face and chest heating up with almost uncomfortable intensity. The crowd roiled and jostled around them, but she had only awareness of the softness of Angela’s chest, the _thud-thud-thud_ of the soundstage beneath them, and the wet hot feeling of her mouth.

Angela didn’t immediately react, frozen beneath Fareeha’s drunken administrations, but quickly her hands came up to cup her face and her lips began to move, their breaths mingling in the thick, humid air between their bodies. Fareeha wanted to cheer with triumph, but she only pressed Angela harder against the stage. A small part of her, quickly overshadowed by the haze of alcohol and magical influence, screamed at her to stop, to do the smart thing and pull away. Fareeha ignored it with prejudice, choosing instead to probe the boundary of Angela’s mouth with her tongue, smiling against her lips when Angela gasped.

As her hands came up to touch the back of Angela’s neck, questing beneath tangled hair for her warmth, Fareeha felt a sharp pinch at the back of her shirt. She could only register faint surprise before she was yanked backwards and off of Angela. Unsteady on her feet and disoriented, she swayed, nearly falling. She caught herself on Lena’s shoulder, looking up at her with blank confusion. Her roommate had a fistful of her shirt in each hand, scowling up at her.

“ _What do you think you’re doing,”_ Lena hissed. Before Fareeha could come up with a coherent response beyond “Uh, kissing?” she was dragged by the collar of her shirt away through the crowd. Lena was much smaller than her, but her fumbling resistance made it easy for her tiny friend to tug her insistently off the dancefloor.

Fareeha blinked as they found themselves in the dingy public bathroom, separated enough from the thrumming music outside for cold realization to start leaking into her consciousness.

They weren’t alone. Quite a few people were standing in line for the toilet and chatting. One or two couples enjoyed each other in the dark corners. Fareeha leaned against the counter in front of the mirror to steady herself, her heart still pounding from the intensity of the kiss.

Lena stood resolutely in front of her, hands on her hips and eyebrows drawn into a sharp V. “I want you to tell me what exactly possessed you to do that, Fareeha,” she said stonily.

“It’s none of your business,” Fareeha muttered, trying and failing to suppress the slur of her words. She sighed heavily, then rubbed at her eyes. “I saw Satya.”

Surprise, then concern flashed over Lena’s face, but she remained determined. “So you saw your ex for the first time in four months, and your immediate response is to get plastered and kiss another girl you’ve barely known for a week?”

“…Yes?” Fareeha supplied meekly.

“Do you have any idea how confused Angela must be right now?” Lena hissed furiously. “I know that you’re attracted to her, it’s obvious, but does she deserve to be kissed by a drunken arse that’s still hung up on her ex-girlfriend? Come on, Fareeha. You’re better than that.”

Fareeha didn’t reply. She let the silence between them stretch and stretch, and still her mind was empty of appropriate responses. She stared down at her feet on the sticky tile of the bathroom floor, and finally mumbled, “I _have_ been wanting to kiss her.”

Lena’s voice finally softened. “I know. And I’m sure you care about her.” She took her hands off her hips and put them both on Fareeha’s shoulders, forcing her to look up into Lena’s eyes. “But as your friend,” Lena said firmly, “I can’t let you break her heart just because you’re still hurting from Satya. You need to work out your feelings yourself.”

Fareeha just looked up at her, and to her everlasting embarrassment, she burst into tears.

Lena immediately pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back and shushing her gently. Fareeha shook against her, tears and snot quickly soaking her friend’s shoulder, but she couldn’t stop. All of the pain from the break-up suddenly welled within her until she was overflowing.

She stayed against Lena’s shoulder for a long time.

She could tell that the other people in the bathroom were staring, but she couldn’t stop, and Lena didn’t seem to care. She just kept rubbing Fareeha’s back and murmuring “It’s okay, let it all out, you’re alright,” until Fareeha finally calmed down.

“I was just so surprised that she actually came to find me, and then she said hurtful things, and I said hurtful things, and she’s… just so important to me, still,” Fareeha said hoarsely, forcing the words past the choked lump in her throat. “I don’t know how to fix it, Lena. Our relationship never worked, but I still want her in my life, and we don’t know how to stop pushing each other away.” She finally subsided, sniffling into Lena’s shoulder. “And I kissed Angela, which was a huge mistake. You’re right, she’s probably so confused and scared right now, and I don’t know how I can face her. I’m such a huge fuckup.” Her face crumpled in shame.

“You’re not a fuckup,” Lena replied, voice gentle as she finally let go of her and took a step back. “You’re just drunk. And probably more than a little high from the music.”

Fareeha wiped her eyes and gave her a watery smile. “You were drunk too, earlier. What happened to that?”

Lena giggled. “Jesse finally cut me off a while ago. I’ve been sobering up slowly.” She looped her arm around Fareeha’s elbow and helped her stand up. “Come on, you need to go home. I’ll call a cab.”

Fareeha winced. “What about Angela?”

“Don’t worry about her. I’m texting Lúcio right now and asking him to take her over to his place early. She’ll be fine.”

“I still have to talk to her,” Fareeha said, swallowing down more tears. “I… have no idea what to say, but I’ll figure it out. For both our sakes.”

“That sounds good,” Lena replied as they left the bathroom. “Don’t forget, tomorrow we’re going to hit that hunter’s house.”

“Don’t remind me,” Fareeha groaned. “I’m going to be so hungover.”

\---

_“I am so hungover.”_

“You’ve handled worse than this, demon hunter!” Lena’s cheerful, shrill voice stabbed into Fareeha’s skull like an ice pick, sending needles of pain lancing through her head. “Come on, get up!”

She could only groan and turn over in bed, letting her tangled hair fall over her face. “I feel like shit.” She was still dressed in yesterday’s party clothes, and her mouth tasted like stale whiskey and tears. The crying and drinking had thoroughly dehydrated her, and she gratefully swallowed down the glass of water and aspirin Lena had left helpfully by her bed.

_Fun night last night?_ Raptora asked from their perch by the window. Fareeha could hear the amusement in their voice.

“I wouldn’t call it fun, exactly,” Fareeha muttered as she began sliding each limb individually off the bed. “Saw my ex at the party, got super drunk, kissed another girl that I actually _like_ but not for the right reasons.” She finally sat up and rubbed at her eye, cursing when she realized that she had forgotten to take her makeup off last night. She stared at the black smudge of her eyeliner on her hand for a minute, very tempted to just slump back into bed. “No, must get up,” she told herself firmly.

_You saw Satya? That explains the drinking,_ Raptora said. _But who did you kiss?_

Fareeha squinted at them. “You’re supposed to be my spirit guide, Raptora. My demon hunting mentor. Why do you sound so interested in my love life right now?”

Raptora’s black feathers puffed up in agitation and they hastily turned their face away to preen at their neck. _None of your business,_ they said in the haughtiest tone they possessed. _Your mother appointed me to train and mentor you in all matters of your life, not only in the art of hunting. Your emotional state and general health are extremely important to controlling your Eye’s powers and using magic –_

“You just wanted to know, didn’t you?” Fareeha couldn’t help smiling as they clacked their beak in frustration.

_This conversation is ridiculous, and you are ridiculous,_ they sniffed, and swooped swiftly out of the room. Laughing, Fareeha finally got herself up and changed into a new set of work clothes. She headed to the bathroom to remove last night’s makeup and tame her hair, and emerged feeling much more awake, if still moderately hungover.

Lena was already dressed, inhaling her usual bowl of cereal and mug of coffee. Fareeha took one look inside the fridge and quickly retreated, not wanting to upset her protesting stomach. She settled on some plain buttered toast, and poured a cup of coffee for herself. “Are we meeting Jesse at the house, or picking him up?” she asked, sitting down next to Lena.

“I figured we could take your motorcycle, since it can navigate the tight tunnels into the Undercity,” Lena said, shrugging. “Jesse’s already texted me and told me he’d meet us at noon.”

“Zenyatta lives in the Undercity? I thought he wasn’t a hunter anymore.”

“I don’t know the reason,” Lena replied. “Maybe he left the job, but wanted to stay close to the action. Who knows.”

They ate the rest of their breakfast in comfortable silence, then quickly cleaned everything up and got ready to go. Fareeha spent some time polishing and inspecting the edge of her golden sword for nicks or damage, then strapped it to her back as usual. She dug around in their weapons closet and emerged with the package that Hanzo had delivered last week. She had been so busy with midterms that she hadn’t actually gotten to try out his newest product.

Out of the plain cardboard packaging emerged a beautiful, lightweight handgun. Fareeha weighed it in her hand, appreciating the modern design but noticing the supernatural improvements that Hanzo had made. The barrel was engraved with a stylized design containing various sigils for good aim and a steady hand. The whole thing was made with some kind of silver alloy, making it an effective blunt weapon against vampires, werewolves, and all manner of magical creatures should the need arise. Packed in with the gun was a small silver box holding four loaded magazines containing bullets delicately filigreed with gold. The gun was powerful enough to punch a few holes through a demon, but small and lightweight enough that it fit easily into Fareeha’s chest holster and she could barely feel it. She nodded in satisfaction, reminding herself to send him something in return for such an extravagant gift. After she had helped them five years ago, the Shimadas were always showering her with free gifts.

Gun safely strapped under her arm and magazines stored in a pouch at her waist, she snapped on her breastplate and donned a pair of leather gloves, good for driving a motorcycle as well as punching a demon or two. She nodded at Lena, who had emerged from her room with her mage staff in hand, wearing dark jeans and with a curious object affixed to her chest. It looked like a small dome of blue crystal, polished and smoothed to a high shine and affixed to a harness that covered most of Lena’s chest. The crystal gave off a faint blue light, and Fareeha detected a complex network of magic woven into the various vortices within its shifting blue depths.

“What is that?”

“It’s what I call a chronal accelerator,” Lena said proudly. “I’ve been working on it for months, and Lúcio helped me build it. It’s basically a focus crystal like I have on my staff, but much larger. I’ll be able to use it to move through time, and it channels my magic to manipulate my own timestream.”

“That’s amazing,” Fareeha replied, gazing in wonder at the deceptively simple magical device. “Have you tested it out yet?”

“Nope!” Lena said brightly, and at Fareeha’s incredulous look she laughed. “Okay, yes, I’ve tested it extensively in controlled conditions. No need to fret! This should seriously assist me in battle.”

“I’m sure of it. Though I hope we won’t be walking into a fight,” Fareeha replied grimly. “I want to meet Zenyatta and get some answers, but mostly I want this to be over quickly.” She looked down at her hands, and sighed. “I need to go to Lúcio’s tonight and talk to Angela.”

“Then let’s get going already!” Lena exclaimed cheerily, jogging out the door.

Fareeha held out her hand, and Raptora jumped easily onto her arm. _I’m with you, Fareeha,_ they said warmly. She nodded, and they left together.

\---

Zenyatta’s house was small and modest, situated on the outskirts of the Undercity. The ride through the tunnels had been long and winding, due to the circuitous route that Fareeha took to try to shake off pursuers. She rumbled to a stop on the street outside the house, where Jesse was already waiting, Raptora perched on the wall next to him.

“Looks like an old part of Hudson City,” Fareeha commented, looking up at the triangular roof of the building and the decorated stone façade. “Must have sunken or been buried long ago.”

“Parts of the Undercity were built by magic,” Jesse said, pushing off from the stone wall and crushing a cigarillo beneath his heel. “Could be that some mage felt nostalgic about antique architecture.” He looked up and down the street, lit by the occasional glowing sigil set against the stone walls and lined with tidy little houses similar to the one Zenyatta owned. The ceiling rose far above them into the relative gloom of the underground, though the golden ants’ hill glow of the city center was never far away. Occasionally they could hear the distant rumble of passing subway trains, but this area was old and deeper underground than others, so the tiny quakes never reached them.

Zenyatta’s home was protected by a low stone wall interrupted by a simple wrought iron gate. Fareeha looked up at the windows and saw no lights, only tightly drawn curtains. “Maybe he’s not home.”

“Only one way to find out,” Jesse replied, unlatching the gate and stepping inside. The front of the house was simple, the path to the front door lined with neat little bricks. As they stepped over the threshold of the gate, dozens of tiny, intricate symbols lit up on the walkway in clean blue light. Jesse whistled and retracted his foot, but when nothing else happened he strode through and let Fareeha and Lena follow.

“A hunter’s security system,” Lena said, bending over the glowing bricks curiously. “I can’t detect if it’s been triggered recently. He might not be home after all.”

As Jesse reached up to knock on the plain wooden door, the Eye of Horus twinged violently. Fareeha gasped and gritted her teeth as the phantom pain throbbed across her cheek. “Someone’s here,” she said when Lena looked at her with concern. “Zenyatta might have guests. Demonic ones.”

Jesse’s face hardened and he lowered his fist, testing the doorknob instead. The door swung open, unclasped, and his eyes snapped to hers before he plunged inside. Lena and Fareeha followed close behind, Raptora clutching her shoulder tight enough to hurt.

The house was small, with a cramped foyer and a dusty staircase. Everything was quiet and dark, like no one had been there in weeks. The furniture in the living room was sparse but tasteful and austere. A thin veneer of dust laid over everything, and silence hung in the air like a shroud. As they moved deeper into the house, the pain in the Eye intensified until Fareeha had to press her hand against it. “Demons. A lot of them,” was all she could say, but her friends understood. They spread out into a loose formation, with Jesse taking the fore, as they combed through the house.

“Zenyatta definitely hasn’t been here in weeks, maybe a month,” Lena said, her voice tight with tension. She pointed at the untouched Buddhist shrine in the corner of the room, small offerings of fruit and rice already rotting in their porcelain plates.

“We’ll move forward assuming that Talon has taken or killed him,” Jesse replied. He cursed lowly. “I wish we’d found him sooner.”

“You did what you could,” Fareeha told him firmly. She unsheathed her sword and gripped it, comforted by its familiar weight. Her Eye prickled constantly, but she grit her teeth and tried to calm herself down. Raptora touched her cheek with their beak gently.

_Your emotions enhance its effect,_ they told her. _If you can let go of your fear, it will hurt less._

Fareeha winced. “Yeah, I know.” She could only think of the last time she had faced Reaper, how he had shattered her binding magic like delicate glass. The bone-white mask flashed in her mind, black iris-less eyes mocking her powerlessness. She turned to Lena and Jesse, trying not to let her desperation show in her voice. “If Reaper comes, you have to promise me you’ll –“

_“Run.”_

The voice was right behind her, close enough that she could feel a tendril of black smoke caressing her cheek. Before she could move to evade, a monstrous blow to her back sent her flying. Somehow she kept ahold of her sword as she slammed into a wall, knocking the wind out of her. She sank to the floor, gasping, her limbs flailing out of her control.

She heard Lena yell wordlessly, and the room filled with blue magic as the chronal accelerator activated. Lena was suddenly gone, so fast that an afterimage of blue light trailed behind her like a tail. She darted across the room in an instant, behind the shifting black silhouette in the center of the room. Reaper turned to follow her, snarling. Fareeha caught a glimpse of that mask, and the pain in her Eye flared to white-hot intensity. Somehow, she was back on her feet, hand outstretched, the familiar incantation rolling off her tongue.

“ _In the name of Horus, I strike you. In the name of Horus, I burn you. In the name of Horus, I banish you!”_

She didn’t bother with a binding spell, since it wouldn’t have worked. The Eye flared to life on her face, and golden light curled off her outstretched hand before forming into a vibrating orb of power in her palm. The air around it hissed, crackling with power and sending off tendrils of lightning that danced between her fingers. She took a breath, feeling the power burning through her like a rushing river.

Lena reappeared next to her, mage staff in hand and wreathed in blue flame. She etched a glowing sigil into the air with the tip of her staff, activating it with a _pop_ that echoed through the room. Reaper screamed as his limbs were immobilized, freezing mid-lunge. At Lena’s nod, Fareeha aimed squarely at Reaper’s heart, and threw the orb of power. At that range, she couldn’t have missed, and the gold struck him squarely, immediately blazing into fire that spread through his body. Lena gasped and the time sigil vanished, freeing Reaper from his bonds. He screamed – a high, hissing sound as the cleansing fire burned him. Fareeha backed up, beginning to see blackness flickering in the corners of her vision as the power of the Eye took its toll.

The golden fire lasted for a couple more seconds before it winked out, leaving purple impressions on Fareeha’s eyes. Reaper collapsed to the floor, black smoke leaking out of the gaps in his black armor and pooling on the floor like water. When he didn’t move, Fareeha dared a step closer, sword held out.

“Gabriel?” she tried. “Are you in there?”

A low, cold laugh filled the room, and Reaper stirred on the floor, propping himself up on one clawed hand. “You think Gabriel is still in here? He was burned out, banished, worse than Fallen. I made sure of it myself,” he growled, the mask turning unerringly to look straight at Fareeha. “There is only Reaper, now.” He stood up, the smoke curling from his back like a cape, his hood obscuring what must have been human features, once.  

In a flash he was across the room, and Fareeha barely blocked his claw with the flat of her sword. He snarled in her face, but with great effort she managed to throw him off of her. When he stumbled, his flailing arm was caught suddenly in a great toothy mouth, fangs as long as knives sinking deep in his flesh. Jesse tossed him effortlessly across the room, coming to crouch in front of Fareeha. He had turned when she wasn’t looking, her friend replaced by a huge sable-colored wolf, as tall as a horse. He stood gracefully on three paws, ears laid back and teeth bared to the demon before them.

“You’ll regret that, dog,” Reaper growled, kicking his way out of a shattered bureau. He abruptly turned past them toward the front of the room, near the front door. “How long are you going to keep ignoring me, Sombra?” he asked acidly to the air.

“Ah! Finally you ask. I thought you had it handled,” a disembodied voice quipped. Purple light flickered in the corner before resolving into the shape of a small, dark skinned woman, her face framed by a shock of bright purple hair arranged artfully on top of her head. She held a mage’s staff in one hand and had a curious gauntlet strapped to the other, fingers flickering with purple magic. “I was excited to see how you’d fare outnumbered three to one,” she said as light flared from her staff.

“That’s the sorceress!” Lena hissed at Fareeha’s side. “The one that planted that thing into you. Probably the one that could crack the protective enchantments around Reinhardt’s house.”

“A human sorceress?” Fareeha said, turning to the strange woman and calling indignantly out to her. “Don’t you know what he is? How can you ally yourself with something like that?”

“I have my reasons,” Sombra replied, winking. “Not for you to know.”

“Enough talking,” Reaper growled, and they leapt into battle.

Lena was on Sombra in a second, the bladed end of her staff swinging. Sombra met her with a blow of her own, and power trembled in the air. As the two mages began to duel with body and magic, strange wind whipped through the room and the smell of ozone and electricity permeated the air. Lena moved so fast that she was only a blur, but Sombra was holding her at bay with a crackling barrier of purple energy. They clashed again and again, sending off sparks.

Fareeha and Jesse faced off against Reaper. He tried again to break Fareeha’s guard, but Jesse lashed out at him with tooth and claw. Fareeha knew that she couldn’t rely on the Eye again to cast another banishing spell, unless she wanted to deplete her energy to fight. Instead, she sheathed her sword and pulled the handgun from its holster, loading a magazine and tugging the slide back in one smooth movement. The gun clicked in her hand, the first golden bullet loaded into the chamber. She thumbed the safety off and aimed, shouting, “Jesse, _now!_ ”

With a bark that echoed through the room Jesse jumped backwards, huge paws braced against an overturned armchair in the corner. Once he was clear of her line of fire, Fareeha did not hesitate. She squeezed the trigger once, twice, and landed both shots. One hurtled through Reaper’s chest, the gold burning an aching molten hole through the black smoke but otherwise passing harmlessly through his semi-intangible form. The second dealt him a glancing blow to the head, ricocheting off the bone mask. Hairline cracks spread from the side of his face over his black eyes, and to Fareeha’s astonishment, fresh red blood began to leak from behind the mask.

“So you can’t dodge everything,” Fareeha said, smiling grimly. She raised the gun again, aimed squarely between Reaper’s black eyes. Before she could shoot, Lena’s scream cut through her battle focus and she instinctively swung the gun over to Sombra.

Lena was on the ground, both hands pressed to her chest where the crystal focus of the chronal accelerator was beginning to crack. The shining blue of her crystal was quickly darkening to the purple of Sombra’s corrupting magic, and to Fareeha’s horror Lena’s form began to blink and flicker in and out of existence, like a dying candle. She cried out in wordless rage and shot three more times. The sorceress only laughed and disappeared before her eyes, her body wreathed in the camouflaging spell. To her relief, Lena’s magic re-stabilized and she sat up, panting.

“Lena, are you –“ Fareeha bit back a scream as five points of lancing, white-hot pain raked down her back, Reaper’s claws biting deep. Warm blood soaked her jacket, but despite her shock she did not fall. As she turned and shot her last round point-blank into Reaper’s face, Raptora shrieked and swooped in, sharp beak tearing his hood to shreds. More red seeped out from behind the mask, and white shards of it fell away to reveal half of the face underneath. Fareeha’s blood ran cold as she saw the same dark-skinned, curly-haired man from the alleyway, beard shot through with white and red.

This was not the Gabriel she had seen, however. His eye was completely black, sclera dark as ink. What Fareeha remembered as deep brown eyes were replaced by an angry red iris, shot through with a jagged pupil. Black veins and more smoke permeated his brown skin, vapor pouring from his mouth like blood. His face was twisted into a rictus of rage, the same hissing growl erupting from him as he turned and swatted at Raptora with a clawed hand. The spirit fell out of the air with a sharp cry, but Fareeha had no time to look after them. She dropped the empty magazine and slammed a new one home, lunging forward with the handgun in one hand and her naked sword in another. Before she could do more than swing her sword, he stepped into her guard with a whisper of smoke and grabbed her sword arm. She felt her bones bend under the force of his grip, and her sword dropped from nerveless fingers. She brought up her other hand and shot him three times, but the bullets passed cleanly through him.

He looked down at her with half a face revealed by the jagged edge of his mask, teeth bared in a slow smile. She tried to tug her arm out of his grip, but his grip was unrelenting, claws slowly squeezing her bones together. He raised the hand that was not holding her in place, and the darkness gathered and condensed in his palm to form a black shotgun, wreathed in a purple miasma of demonic magic. Fareeha’s Eye _burned,_ and a scream ripped its way out of her.

“Die,” Reaper purred into her ear, and he shot her in the chest.

The slug slammed into her, the point-blank range sending her flying backwards as he casually let go of her arm. She fell to the ground in slow motion, seeing the shot rip itself through her with the detachedness of a spectator. In her last moments of consciousness, she had the vague impression of Jesse howling, Lena screaming, and the constant, mocking laughter of the demon.

She tasted fire and blood at the back of her mouth, and darkness claimed her vision at last.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for your patience with me and all your wonderful comments <3 <3 <3 i've been working super hard on the next two chapters, and this chapter is much longer to compensate for the outcome of their kiss lmao   
> writing fight scenes is really difficult, but hopefully we'll be back to gay fluff next chapter. stick with me a little longer! thanks again y'all <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dream, then a series of emotional conversations. Fareeha continues to be a big ol' lesbian.

_Ana Amari crested a rocky outcropping, picking her footing carefully in small leather shoes scuffed with dust. She wore a heavy grey cloak that reached her calves, ragged and worn with travel. A light blue hijab protected her hair, surprising Fareeha. She had only seen Ana wear a hijab on the rare occasions they had gone to the small downtown mosque when she was a child. She herself had chosen not to wear a hijab when she grew to the expected age, and her mother never questioned her choice._

_She could almost believe that this was the woman from her childhood memories, but her face was too lined, her white hair escaping from the edges of the hijab in soft waves. Ana tucked it back inside impatiently, hefting a long silver rifle in one hand. The sniper’s scope glittered in the gloom._

_They were on the side of a mountain or canyon, the air beyond the isolated outcropping obscured by a thick gray mist. Night was falling quickly in this strange place, and Fareeha looked up to see the barest hints of unfamiliar stars between the clouds._

_Ana dug around in her cloak and pulled a small, uncut crystal from an unknown pocket, whispering an Arabic incantation. The crystal glowed and a red werelight flew from it, hovering a couple feet above Ana’s head, bobbing slowly and illuminating the immediate area. Fareeha almost recoiled, her throat closing at the unexpected sound of her mother’s voice, unheard for five long years. She mastered herself as Ana looked out into the mist a little longer, before turning and following the rocky path into the darkness._

_Fareeha followed her, no longer gripped with the same white terror she had experienced the last time she had dreamt of her mother. She knew it was a dream this time, knew that she walked alongside her mother, invisible. “Are you real?” she asked into the air, her voice small in the cavernous darkness of their surroundings. “Is this place where you went, for five years?” She couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice. “Or are you really just a dream? Have you been dead this whole time?” She looked down at her insubstantial hands. “Am I dead?”_

_Ana stopped abruptly on the path, and Fareeha almost ran into her. She was touching the dark skin on her cheek with small fingers, ghosting over the glowing Eye on her face, a match to her daughter’s but not identical. Concern flickered over her expression, before the mark’s glow faded and she lowered her hand. “Fareeha,” she murmured, and Fareeha’s heart gave a sickening lurch. “I hope you’re safe.” She raised her wrist, adorned with a corded bracelet holding a single golden bead. With a sigh she kissed the bead, then dropped her arm and tread onwards, ever away from Fareeha._

_Fareeha closed her eyes, refusing to let the tears fall._

\----

She came back to awareness slowly, like being dragged upward from a deep pool. She was aware of the light behind her eyelids first, then the feel of a heavy, woolen blanket covering her bare chest. Some part of her felt alarm at how little pain she felt, but mostly she felt only a bone-deep, gripping exhaustion that tugged insistently at her, trying to drag her back into the depths of sleep. She fought it, eyebrows furrowing, wanting to open her eyes and figure out what was going on. Her memories of the fight, of Reaper, of her friends being injured, were leaking back into her consciousness. Finally, she managed to drag her eyes open, vision swimming.

She was lying in an unfamiliar bed, naked from the waist up and covered with layers of blankets. The room was cluttered but homey, with a desk in the corner that sported a rather impressive gaming setup. The other half of the room was taken up by a haphazard pile of DJ equipment, obviously pushed to the corner to make room for the bed she was using. Soft music played from hidden speakers near her head, familiar and soothing, keeping the pain from her wounds away. She looked down at herself, daring the lift the blanket with one hand to assess the damage.

A thick layer of bandages covered her chest from collarbone to waist, white linen hiding the extent of the damage from view. She could also feel the padding of bandages on her back as well, covering the long gashes from Reaper’s claws. Despite the extent of her injuries, she felt mostly lucid, if still achingly tired. She felt like she had just run ten miles, her limbs heavy and weak.

A heavy sigh startled her out of her thoughts, and she craned her head to look to her left.

Satya sat on the floor beside her, head pillowed on the edge of her bed, sleeping soundly. Fareeha’s heart instantly sped up, but she didn’t move, only looked down at her ex-girlfriend like she might wake up and bite her. Her normally smooth black hair was tangled and messy, and she wore a simple hoodie and leggings that were mussed with sleep. The chair that had been beside Fareeha’s bed was abandoned behind her, Satya’s legs folded under her in a way that had to be uncomfortable.

Like this, it was easy to see her as the serious, genius college freshman she had fallen in love with, a star student and fastidiously disciplined mage. They had been so young, Fareeha a year out of high school and still hunting full time, Satya trying to convince her to take her talents into academics and encouraging her to pursue a myth and anthropology degree at the same college. It was before Satya had opened up her own smithy and begun selling light sculptures, before Fareeha had even finished hunting down every demon in Hudson City.

Everything was different now. Without speaking, trying to move as quietly as possible, Fareeha lifted her hand and settled it in Satya’s hair. She closed her eyes, fingers carding through the worst of the tangles, feeling every strand against her palm, savoring the sensation one last time. Her arm got tired very quickly, but Satya was already stirring in her sleep. She reached up and twined her fingers with Fareeha’s, head rising slowly.

“You’re awake,” Satya said, surprise and relief warring on her face. Her hand tightened in Fareeha’s when she tried to pull away. Satya wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I came as soon as I heard. Fareeha, I –“

“I’m sorry,” Fareeha blurted. Suddenly needing to sit up, she tried to push herself off the bed. Her elbows trembled, but Satya merely pressed her back down with gentle hands. Despite her hushing, Fareeha doggedly continued on, determined to say what she needed to say. “Satya, I’m so sorry that I said those things to you at the party. I was being a total ass, and I –“

“No, Fareeha, stop.” Satya finally spoke, a dark curtain of hair obscuring her expression. She looked up, and to Fareeha’s alarm her light blue eyes were shining with tears. “Stop trying to apologize. I am the one who needs to apologize to _you_. I lied when I said that I’d moved on, okay? I still think about you every day. You almost _died_ and I finally realized how important you are to me. I…” She swiped a hand across her eyes. “I’ve been an idiot.”

Fareeha didn’t speak for a long time, letting Satya calm herself down. She looked down at their tightly clasped hands, not knowing what kind of expression she was making. Eventually, feeling the heavy weight of finality upon her, she said, “Our relationship never worked out, Satya.” She remembered those early days, before the fights and before they had grown into different people. She swallowed. “But I’d like to start over, if we can. If you want.”

“If we can’t be lovers, can we be friends?” Satya replied, aiming a watery smile at her. “I’ve missed you so much these past four months, Fareeha.”

Fareeha couldn’t help but smile back, feeling her own eyes pricking with tears. “Friends. That sounds nice. I’ve missed you, too.” Satya leaned forward, on her knees beside Fareeha’s bed, and kissed her gently on the forehead. Fareeha hugged her with one arm, her other hand still clasped tightly between them. When Satya pulled back, she was smiling again.

“I’ll go tell Lúcio and the others that you’ve woken up,” she said. “You slept for three full days, so everyone has been very worried.”

“Wait, is everyone okay?” Fareeha asked, feeling her anxiety rise again.

“Everyone is fine. Lena is still recovering, Jesse is bruised but alright, and Raptora is fine,” Satya told her. “They’ll come and explain everything soon enough, okay? Just stay here and rest until I come back.” She finally stood up and stretched before leaving the room. Fareeha settled back against the pillows, her concerns eased for the time being. She wanted to ask about Angela, since she was pretty sure she was at Lúcio’s house, but her dreams and her conversation with Satya had drained her. She heard voices outside her door, but her eyelids were already drifting shut, and sleep dragged her under once more.

This time, she did not dream.

\---

When she next awoke, the curtains had been drawn, and sunlight fell over her bed, warming her legs. Everything looked pretty much the same, though no one occupied the chair by her bed. The skin beneath her bandages felt tighter somehow, discomfort leaking through her sleepy haze. She pushed herself up, surprised that she actually felt a lot stronger than the last time she had woken up. Newly aware of her abilities, she searched the nightstand beside her, hoping to find her phone or some kind of device to figure out the time. When she found nothing, she slumped back onto the bed, breathing heavily. Her chest wound _ached,_ though from the pain and bandages at her chest, lighter than before, she could tell that she was nowhere near the brink of death anymore.

Newly determined with this realization, she pushed herself up again. With slow, careful movements, she swung her legs over the side of the bed. At some point, she had been changed out of her bloody jeans and into a pair of comfortable pajama pants. They were Lúcio’s, judging by the fact that they ended far above her ankles, and were patterned with tiny green frogs. As she tried to stretch her legs – weak from unknown days in bed – pain lanced across her back that almost sent her to the floor. Gritting her teeth against the discomfort, she grabbed the edge of the nightstand in a white-knuckle grip and pulled herself slowly into a standing position. To her relief, her legs did not collapse beneath her.

Taking slow, hobbling steps, Fareeha made her way into the hallway outside Lúcio’s music room. She abandoned the scraps of her bloodied shirt that she found by the door, choosing instead a loose hoodie that advertised Lúcio’s newest album on the back. She had only been to his apartment a couple times, mainly for healing after battle, but managed to find her way into the living room. She braced one shoulder against a wall at all times, unwilling to collapse and humiliate herself in front of her friends.

Lúcio’s living room was messy but comfortable, with squashy couches decorated with far too many accent pillows surrounding a flat-screen TV. A young woman with brown hair sat on the floor in front of the TV, game controller in hand and muttering a continuous stream of Korean into her headset. In the other corner was the combined kitchen and dining room, painted in cheerful yellow and green tones. Fareeha swallowed at the sight of Angela, sitting at the table with eyes downcast, picking at a salad with no signs of interest. Lúcio stood in the kitchen, humming to himself as he prepared food. Lena, Satya, and Jesse were nowhere to be seen.

“Hey,” she said. She summoned a smile to her sweaty face. “Guess I didn’t die, huh?”

Angela and Lúcio looked up, faces fixed in twin expressions of shock and relief. Angela was the first to move, voice unexpectedly loud. “Fareeha! You should be in bed!” She abandoned her salad to help Fareeha sit down on one of the squashy couches. If she wasn’t so winded from her trek into the living room, she would be embarrassed as Angela slung her arm over her shoulders, supporting her weight until she could sink gratefully into the couch. Fareeha stared at her, but she didn’t seem any different despite what had happened between them, her face composed in that gentle healer’s determination, her messy hair held back in a high ponytail. She was wearing more clothing borrowed from Lúcio: a yellow knitted sweater that matched her hair, and a pair of track pants that hung tantalizingly low on her hips. She briskly arranged the pillows at Fareeha’s back so that she would be comfortable, ignoring her protests. When Angela was finally satisfied, she stood up and sternly put her hands on her hips. “I can already tell that you are going to be a bad patient,” she said, though the worry and relief in her voice took all the bite out of her admonishment.

Lúcio made his way over from the kitchen, beaming and holding a glass of water in his hand. Without his skates his limp was more apparent, but he had little difficulty getting to them. Fareeha accepted the water gratefully, sipping it slowly at Lúcio’s instruction. When she kept it down with no difficulty, he left and came back with a simple bowl of chicken noodle soup. Fareeha ate it eagerly, her stomach grumbling after days of only magical energy to sustain her. Angela sat close by her side, making sure she was eating slowly enough and wouldn’t run out of energy. Despite everything, Fareeha was desperately glad to have Angela’s warmth by her side again, her quiet presence filling her with more strength than soup ever could.

“So,” she finally said as she put the empty bowl down. Lúcio and Angela looked expectantly at her. The young woman playing videogames in the corner even slid her headset off her head, though her eyes were still glued to the screen. Fareeha took a deep breath. “How long was I out?”

Lúcio’s relieved smile slid off his face. “Jesse brought you here five days ago.” Fareeha shuddered, closing her eyes. _Five days._ “I tried my best to heal you, but you developed a fever on the first night that didn’t break for a full 36 hours,” Lúcio continued, voice uncharacteristically grim. Fareeha suddenly noticed how haggard they both looked. Lúcio’s hair was dull and limp, tied pragmatically away from his face, and it looked like he hadn’t shaved in days. Angela, despite her brave smile, had dark bags under her eyes.

“I woke up on the third day, right? I talked to Satya,” Fareeha said, trying to count the days. “I thought I was feeling better, but I slept… for another two days?”

“Your fever broke on the third day, which was good because we were very close to taking you to the hospital, and who knows how we would have explained your injuries,” Lúcio replied. “After Satya told us you woke up, I dropped the sedative spell I was using in hopes that you’d wake up again, but it took another two days.” He rubbed his face wearily. “It was touch and go for a bit there, but Angela offered to use her healing magic last night to speed up your healing, and it worked. You’re well on your way to recovery.”

Despite the pain of her injuries, Fareeha reached over and tugged on Lúcio’s arm, ignoring his confusion as she pulled him into a tight hug. “You saved me,” she said as he pulled back from her. She turned to Angela, and swallowed down her anxiety to take her hand. Their fingers tangled together, and she felt her whole body warm up. “You both did. You saved my life.”

Lúcio finally smiled again. “You certainly didn’t make it easy, Fareeha. You know I’ve always got your back, girl.” He beamed at Angela, reaching over to pat her heartily on the back. “And I couldn’t have done it without you, Angela! You said that your angel powers are sealed away, but you’re the strongest healer I’ve ever met!”

Angela blushed prettily and ducked her head. “I tried my best, it was nothing really –“

“Thank you,” Fareeha interjected. “I mean it.” Her fingers tightened around Angela’s. She tried to communicate as much of her gratitude and relief in that simple gesture as possible. Angela squeezed her hand in return, still flushed but with her head held high.

“Oh! That reminds me.” Lúcio pushed himself up and loped out of the room, calling, “I’ll wake Lena! We need to give her the medicine. She’ll be happy to hear that you’re awake, too!”

“Is she alright?” Fareeha asked anxiously. “Satya told me that she was recovering, and where’s Jesse?”

“Lena will be fine,” Angela explained hurriedly, gentle hands settling on Fareeha’s shoulders. She hadn’t even noticed that she was halfway to her feet, and with a pained hiss she settled back down. “Sombra’s corruption magic is strong, but Satya searched for a time mage in the Undercity who gave us a tincture to stabilize her time magic. She’s been conscious and alert since the first night.”

“And Jesse?” Fareeha’s blood ran cold at the thought of her friend, armed with only his teeth and claws, against Reaper alone. Werewolves had innate magical abilities that allowed for the shapeshifting, but could not cast spells or fight against demons beyond attacking them physically. She shuddered to think of how Jesse had gotten two unconscious and wounded people out of that place without getting hurt.

“Jesse left after the second day to tend to _The Wolf Bar,_ ” Angela said, empathy for Fareeha’s fear softening her eyes. “He was mildly injured in the fight but his accelerated healing means that he’s not in danger.”

“How did he get us out? Reaper wouldn’t have just _let us go,_ would he?” Fareeha asked, lost for an explanation.

“He reported that after Reaper shot you, Jesse attacked him and managed to drive him and Sombra away from you and Lena. Then, while he was preparing to make his final stand, Reaper received word from a demon messenger and left very quickly,” Angela said. At Fareeha’s incredulous expression, she could only shrug. “Jesse speculates that eliminating me, and therefore you, is not a Talon objective, but Reaper’s own personal vendetta. He told me that he’ll be working on investigating Talon’s movements to see what pulled Reaper and Sombra away.”

“I called out to Gabriel during the fight, and Reaper told me he was dead. Then he shot me in the chest, which should have killed me, but I didn’t die. He must have avoided my heart somehow,” Fareeha said, thoughts racing. “Whether Reaper knows it or not, he’s spared my life twice now. That has to mean something for the angel inside him.”

“Regardless of whether or not Gabriel is still alive, can you promise me something?” Angela asked, interrupting her thoughts. She looked down at their joined hands, golden hair falling to obscure her face. Fareeha could feel her fingers tightening, knuckles white from her effort. “Can you promise me that you’ll take me next time? Please hear me out,” she said when Fareeha began to protest. “I can’t stand the thought of you going out there, alone, to face something that is after _me_. We’ve known each other for so little time, and yet you almost died to protect me. I can’t accept that.”

“I’ve already told you, it’s my job to hunt things like Reaper,” Fareeha said gently, caressing Angela’s knuckles with her other hand. “Protecting people is what I do.”

“When you protect others, you can’t protect yourself,” Angela argued, looking up and locking gazes with Fareeha, blue eyes blazing. “Let me protect you. I may not be as powerful as I was, but I can help. You didn’t see yourself a few days ago, Fareeha. Every breath was a fight, and there was so much blood… I can’t let that happen to you again.”

Worn down by her argument, by the passion blazing in her eyes, Fareeha sighed. “Alright. We’ll take you on the next hunt, but I’m not happy about it. You’re my friend, Angela. I try to avoid putting my friends in harm’s way if I can help it.”

Angela’s smile was like a ray of sunshine against her face. “Any angel would be honored to have a friend such as you.” Fareeha felt her face heat up, and she couldn’t contain her squeak when Angela lifted her hand and gently pressed a feather-light kiss across her knuckles. Her arm tingled with nervous energy, and the urge to tug her closer and kiss each of those long healer’s fingers, to kiss up her arm until she reached the curve where her neck met her shoulder – was near irresistible.

Trying to curb her trembling, Fareeha raised her fingers to touch the fringe of Angela’s hair, caressing the silken strands and then the warm skin beneath, touching her cheek as lightly as she could stand. “Angela,” she said, heady memories filling her vision of those blue eyes on hers, her pink lips and the sweetness of them, her breaths against her cheek – “Angela,” she said again, and Angela’s fingers in hers were suddenly moving, sliding up Fareeha’s arm, careful of the bandages at her collarbone, touching the golden beads in her hair –

“I’m right here, you guys,” a drawling voice interrupted them, and they jumped apart as if electrified. Fareeha pressed her hand to her chest, the aching pain intensifying at her sudden movement, heart still pounding from their almost-kiss. Angela looked no better, but she darted up and grabbed the empty soup bowl, flitting away to put it in the kitchen with many muttered excuses. Fareeha didn’t move, but glared tiredly at the young woman by the TV, who only smirked in return. “It looked like a private conversation to me, so I was just reminding you,” the girl said in slightly accented English, her voice exaggeratedly innocent.

“You must be… Hana, right?” Fareeha said, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice.

“Yes, and you must be Fareeha!” Hana replied, flashing her two fingers in a peace sign. “I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Lúcio’s new roommate.”

“An exchange student, right?”

“Yep! I’m from Busan. I have to admit, the United States is pretty interesting so far!”

“Yes, I’m sure having a half-dead demon hunter in your house has been an interesting experience,” Fareeha said wryly, unable to stay mad at Hana’s charm and enthusiasm. She glanced into the kitchen, catching Angela’s eyes and grimacing in apology.

Angela smiled in return, but the look in her eyes told Fareeha clearly that they were not finished discussing their… friendship. Fareeha could only blush and look away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i honestly love the hurt/comfort trope with pharmercy.... girlfriends healing their girlfriends.... 
> 
> i'm not super satisfied with the ending to this chapter, but i couldn't think of a better place to split it up since i want the next one to really focus on fareeha and angela working out their relationship. so.... this is what you get until i can edit it later lol. as always, thank you so much for your comments!! 
> 
> also, i am not Muslim myself but tried my best to do research to represent ana and fareeha respectfully. if you think that anything i've written here or in the future might be inaccurate/inappropriate, please let me know and i will fix it! thanks <3


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